The summer traveling season is upon us, and this year has brought a whole host of problems for the travel and tourism industry.
While travel and tourism contributed close to 10 percent ($7.2 trillion) of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, growth forecasts for 2016 from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) have been recently revised downward, with the sector being hurt by economic weakness and a ramp-up in terrorist attacks.
In fact, according to Allianz Global Assistance's annual "Vacation Confidence Index," more than a fifth of Americans (22 percent) now say that the fear of future violent events has had an influence on their vacation planning in one way or another.
Aside from the recent terror attacks, planning where to go for those two weeks in the sun has had to contend with a raft of issues including the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and geopolitics, , global growth concerns and changing consumer tastes.
However even with these hurdles, analysts from the sector still believe the travel and tourism industry remains strong.
"Travel is a very resilient industry, so even though there are some downward trends in certain areas, other countries are performing very well," Wouter Geerts, travel analyst at Euromonitor International, told CNBC on Monday.
"So it's not necessarily that the entire industry is falling flat and that there's no growth anywhere. The downward reassessment from WTTC doesn't necessarily mean there's no growth expected, it's just obviously everyone knows that with Brexit, with terrorism attacks, all these things are now contributing to (the level of) growth, especially in Europe."
Spain for instance has become increasingly popular while places like Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey have seen a "marked shift" away in sentiment, according to Sean Tipton, a spokesperson from the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), as people's travel preferences shift away from the Eastern Mediterranean, and more toward the West.
Looking at France specifically, its tourism minister recently said that the number of nights spent in French hotels by foreign tourists fell 10 percent during July compared to 2015, according to an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche. Meanwhile on Monday, Air France-KLM reported a 0.6 percent decline in passenger numbers during July due to cabin crew strikes, compared to the year before.
Spain's National Statistics Institute recently said close to 33 million people visited the country during the first six months of 2016, around a 12 percent increase compared to the same period in 2015, The Associated Press reported.
With factors such as Zika, Brexit and the rise in terrorist attacks, analysts suggest that "stable locations" like Spain are becoming more popular for vacationers in this current climate.
How Brexit has impacted future holidays
Speaking on the ramifications of Brexit specifically, Geerts said that there were different ways — both beneficial and negative — at what the referendum vote's outcome could mean for British travel.
"In a way, the U.K. is becoming a better destination to go to because the pound has fallen, so people from Europe as well as America, actually it's a better destination to go to now, so we are actually expecting that the U.K. will attract more consumers."
However, Brexit doesn't alleviate the damage it has done when looking at travel more globally, Geerts added, as it will now be more expensive for British citizens to travel abroad, so holiday spending will become a bigger issue for the country going forward.
Consequently, as the pound weakens, Geerts suggested that "staycations" would become increasingly popular in the U.K., while Airbnb, budget hotels and all-inclusive package holidays would become more attractive when travelling overseas, as it allows U.K. holidaymakers to garner better insight on what they will spend when on holiday.