El destete de los padres

The European Travel Commission (ETC) (2005) shows that LCCs continue to take the credit for having significantly boosted tourism to many cities in Europe. With LCCs serving many new destinations that were traditionally underserviced by legacy carriers, tourism exploded in cities following the initiation of these new routes. According to the report, in 2005, cities that were traditionally popular tourist destinations, such as Cyprus and Malta, yet were serviced well by legacy carriers saw very little growth, while Barcelona, Valencia and Dubrovnik saw passenger numbers from the UK more than double as these routes were underserviced overall. This became a mutually beneficial situation, as LCCs enjoyed high load factors and utilisation by initiating and promoting these new routes, while the locations similarly benefitted from increased tourism, thereby in turn supporting these LCCs.

O’Connel and Williams (2005) describe the manner in which leisure travelers comprised the vast majority of airline travelers in 2001, making up 85 percent of all tickets purchased. The price elasticity of leisure travelers is estimated to be 2.4, and so a 10 percent fare reduction will cause a 24 percent increase in sales. Business travelers on the other hand are less price sensitive, and the price elasticity of demand for this type of passenger is estimated to be 0.1 displaying a highly inelastic demand. In another study undertaken (O’Connell and Williams, 2005), price elasticity was not constant, with a small percentage fare change

20

producing little effect while price changes above 20 percent result in large shifts in demand. Furthermore, travelers travelling together in groups are also particularly important to airline revenues as in most instances more than one ticket is sold due to one leisure traveller having booked a ticket. This shows the clear difference between leisure and business travelers, with the latter tending to travel in singularity while leisure travelers often travel in groups. In developed LCC markets, LCCs have been shown to carry more group travelers than legacy carriers, as was shown by the statistic that 40 percent of Ryanair’s passengers travel in pairs while 31 percent of AirAsia’s passengers are part of a group of three of more (O’Connell and Williams, 2005).

Tourism remains a major driver of LCC traffic in Europe in particular, where LCCs have been the most successful in global terms as shown by Dorsten (2014). Given the benefits of tourism in general, but particularly intra-regional tourism, in recent years, there has been a distinct trend from countries in SSA to attract regional African tourists. One example of a success story in this regard is the 75 percent increase in tourists to Rwanda from 2010 to 2013 which was largely due to an increase in intra-African tourism (Schlumberger and Weisskopf, 2014). In South Africa, one of the most visited countries on the entire African continent, 70 percent of all tourists come from other SADC countries (Schlumberger and Weisskopf, 2014), which displays the potential for other SSA countries where tourism remains highly tilted in favour of tourists from Europe, the US and Asia. Intra-African tourism is also less seasonal, and provides sustained visitors throughout the year. The lack of affordable air travel linkages has been highlighted as a major impediment to intra- regional tourism while visa requirements, whereby the average traveller requires visas to visit 60 percent of the countries on the continent, is another (Schlumberger and Weisskopf, 2014).

Shlumberger and Weisskopf (2014) highlighted a report published by the World Tourism and Travel Council, where tourism in SSA is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Between 2013 and 2023, international tourist arrivals in Kenya are expected to grow to 2.6 million visitors per annum. Similarly in Uganda and Tanzania, tourism growth is expected to reach 5.6 and 5 percent respectively. Looking at East Africa as an example, tourism remains dominated by European and American tourists, and in Kenya in 2010, almost 50 percent of all tourists originated from five countries being the UK, US, France, Italy and Germany. Data from the Tanzanian National Bureau of Statistics displayed a very similar picture relating to Tanzania in 2012. In recent years, data relating to intra-African

21

tourism has been collected (Schlumberger and Weisskopf, 2014), and while visitor numbers from nearby African countries has been increasing, what is clear is that the vast majority of these visitors remain business travellers, and only a small percentage of total tourists originate intra-Africa. Significant efforts remain underway to facilitate both intra and inter regional tourism in SSA, with authorities attempting to reduce or eradicate barriers relating to visa requirements and limited transport connectivity. In the EAC for example, the Secretariat coordinated the meeting of its members in 2013, to create a roadmap for a common passport for EAC member citizens. Some progress has been made, however while EAC members have agreed to align their immigration laws and adopt the technology required to integrate their IT system, achieving this goal remains somewhat of a challenge (Schlumberger and Weisskopf, 2014).

According to Thome (2013), tourism remains a major driver of LCC traffic. The African continent as a whole recorded the second highest growth globally as far as tourism is concerned in 2012 with a 6 percent increase. SSA specifically recorded the lion’s share of this growth with revenues received from tourism being the highest on record compared to previous years. In the same year, intra-Africa passenger numbers increased by 13 percent driven mainly by increasing trade and a growing middle class. Only the lack of liberalisation and over dependence on bilateral air service agreements (BASA) was holding back this potentially massive market.