Research Studies

Spain Overtakes U.S. as World’s Second-Most-Visited Tourist Destination

Spain has jumped above the U.S. to become the second biggest tourist destination, according to new estimated figures. Despite facing a number of significant challenges in 2017, around 82 million tourists visited the country. The preliminary figure, which uses data for the first 11 months of the year and an estimate for December, would likely put it ahead of the U.S. and behind France in terms of overall numbers. Spain’s position as the official world number two looks almost certain because of the dreadful Trump slump year the U.S. is having. France, meanwhile, expects a year-on-year improvement.

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The Top Travel Industry Megatrend

Consumers are looking for experiences, and travel brands want to be their one-stop shop.

Skift recently identified its top Megatrends in Travel for 2018. The top trend is that travel brands want to be experience platforms. Online travel agencies were the first to disrupt the industry and empower consumers to take more control over their own travel experiences. As these companies began to grow, they became the precursors to the experience platform model that travel brands are striving to become—a place where consumers can plan/book almost every facet of his or her travel journey through one platform.

In addition to being intermediaries, brands wish to ensure great experiences—by curating content and harnessing big data and artificial intelligence to personalize the experience to make it that much faster, better and smarter.

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