High inflation is putting a strain on people’s budgets in Germany. Many people still spend a lot on their vacation. The travel industry is on course for the sales level of the time before the Corona crisis.
Despite the stubbornly high inflation, vacationers from Germany do not seem to be saving on the best weeks of the year – on the contrary.
“Inflation and the energy crisis did not lead to a cheap boom,” said Sven Schikarsky, head of product at Dertour and its sister brands ITS and Meiers Weltreisen. According to the industry leader Tui, people spend more on their vacation.
According to a Dertour evaluation, the increased demand from guests for hotels with higher star categories continued in the winter season. According to the second largest German tour operator, 82 percent of holidaymakers booked a 4 or 5 star hotel for the months of November 2022 to the end of February 2023. That was nine percentage points more than in the summer of 2022 and six percentage points more than in the winter of the pre-coronavirus period 2019/20.
Spain as a popular destination
At the same time, many vacationers value budget control. 37 percent rely on all-inclusive offers. The share increased by 21 percentage points compared to the same period three years ago and by 16 percentage points compared to summer 2022. At the top of the list of popular destinations was Spain with the Canary Islands, which are popular in winter.
According to the tourism group Tui, people are spending more on their vacation: the average price of trips sold is currently 5 percent higher than in the previous year and 26 percent higher than in summer 2019, the group recently reported when presenting the figures for the second fiscal quarter.
Tui boss Sebastian Ebel spoke of a “strong booking development”, especially in the past few weeks. The group counted 8.3 million bookings for the summer. This is 13 percent more than in the previous year and almost as many as in the pre-Corona year 2019.
Strong bookings in March
According to data recently published by the analysis company TDA, strong bookings in March have further reduced the overall decline in tour operators compared to the pre-corona year 2019. In terms of sales, both the 2022/23 winter season and the 2023 summer season in March were only four percent below the pre-Corona level.
According to Travel Data + Analytics (TDA), sales growth was higher than would be justified by higher travel prices and higher spending by sun-seekers in the summer alone. The booking development thus points to continued good holiday demand.
So far, according to the information, 23 percent more people than in the same period last year have booked an operator trip for the summer with travel agencies and online. Compared to the 2019 summer season, however, there is still a gap of 27 percent.
Source: Stern
