It now seems that the UK and Russia have been deemed Europe’s hardest hit outbound markets in 2009. This is according to a trend report from the ITB. The travel activity in the UK actually fell by 15 percent, and Russia saw a drop of 12 percent. In a close third was Sweden, which saw a drop of 10 percent.

According to reports, Austria was the only nation to report any kind of gains. In fact, the nation showed travel activity had risen by 2 percent over 2008. Meanwhile, other markets, like the German market, proved that it was still one of Europe’s most resilient markets and showed that overseas trips fell only by 5 percent.

Despite this information, the European travel industry remains optimistic. A lot of this is due to more and more last minute bookings popping up. According to the ITB World Travel Trends Report, which was compiled by the consultancy IPK International, said that, during this period, the number of outbound trips taken by Europeans went down 7 percent. Those who did travel spent 15 percent less on their travels.

Overall, long haul travel fell by 12 percent and short haul trips fell only by 6 percent. Europeans are also willing to make a firm decision regarding their travel intentions in 2010 than they were a year ago. Already, some 68 percent of those who have been polled in October of 2009 said that they would travel at least as often as they did in 2009. This may sound good, but during the same period last year, the figure was 80 percent, not just 68 percent.