The ETC USA team
Members of ETC USA
Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech
Chairman:
Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Rob Franklin, UK (until June 2004)
Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
Chairman:
Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands,
Eugenio Magnani, Italy (from July 2004)
Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK.
Vice-Presidents:
Frederique Raeymaekers, Belgium
Michaela Klare, Germany
Eugenio Magnani
Jean-Philippe Perol, France
Executive Committee:
Michael Gigl, Austria (Conference Chairman)
Rupert Peters, UK (from July 2004)
Katerina Pavlitova, Czech Republic (Chairman, Public Relations)
Dorthe Hansen, Denmark (Secretary/Treasurer)
Conrad van Tiggelen, Netherlands (Chairman, Special Marketing Programme)
Jan Rudomina, Poland (Chairman, By-laws/Rules Working Committee)
Javier Pinanes, Spain (Research Chairman)
Rafael Enzler, Switzerland (Online Chairman)
The American Economy and Outbound Travel
2004 Overview
2005 Outlook
· Recovery in the US economy: real growth in gross domestic
· Initially strong economic growth, but likely to be lower than
product (GDP) stood at 4.4% for the year (compared with 1.9%
in 2004 because of rising oil prices and interest rates:
in 2002 and 3.0% in 2003).
GDP is expected to rise by about 3.75%.
· Interest rates remained low.
· It is expected that interest rates will continue to increase in the
short term. An increase in February 2005 was the sixth since
· 2.2 million jobs added to the US economy - the biggest yearly
June 2004.
increase since 1999. Unemployment rate finished the year
at 5.4%
· Consumer spending is likely to increase more slowly than last
year: annual growth of 3.5% is forecast for 2005 (compared
· The dollar continued to lose value against major foreign
with 3.8% in 2004).
currencies, including the euro and the Japanese yen.
· An extra 2.5 million jobs are expected to be created in 2005,
· Even with the falling dollar, American outbound travel grew:
mostly in the service sector. Unemployment will probably end
the number of international travellers increased by 13%
the year at about 5%.
to over 27 million.
· The indications are that 2005 will be another record year for
· Europe's market share increased by 12% from nearly 11 million
outbound travel.
travellers to over 12 million (44.8% of the outbound market),
making 2004 second only to the record year of 2000.
· Despite the competitiveness of destinations such as Asia,
Central America and the Middle East, interest in Europe
remains high. 65% of the members of the United States Tour
Operators' Association (USTOA) have reported stronger
advance bookings for their packages in euro-zone countries.