The travel industry’s optimism is growing. Bookings are increasing. The industry seems to have finally left the consequences of the tough Corona years behind it.
The travel industry is back on track: booking numbers are increasing, more people than last year want to travel despite the burden of inflation, and some want to spend more money on the best weeks of the year. The President of the German Travel Association (DRV), Norbert Fiebig, spoke on Monday of promising prospects. “The number of Germans who travel in an organized manner is increasing,” reported Fiebig at the start of the world’s largest travel trade fair, ITB Berlin (March 5th to 7th).
Accordingly, 25 percent of those surveyed in a current GfK survey said that they wanted to spend more or significantly more on vacation this year than in 2023. In addition, 79 percent (plus 2 percentage points) of people in Germany are planning a vacation trip.
As of the end of January, 24 percent more people in Germany had booked an organized trip for this summer than a year before. Sales of package tours or modular trips, whose individual elements such as hotels and flights can be put together individually, were 30 percent higher at the end of January than in the previous year. The record summer of 2019 before the corona pandemic has so far been exceeded by 11 percent. The number of guests, however, is still 17 percent behind 2019, as shown by analyzes by the analysis company Travel Data + Analytics (TDA) for the DRV.
According to the information, the most popular travel destinations for the summer are currently Turkey, followed by Spain and Greece.
Travel expenses increased
In the last travel year 2022/23, which ended on October 31st, the industry recovered from the slump caused by the corona pandemic. “Germans have spent almost 10 billion euros more on traveling than before the pandemic. This shows that the desire to travel is back,” reported the DRV President.
German citizens spent 79 billion euros in 2022/23 on trips with at least one overnight stay that were booked before departure. Compared to the record value of 69.5 billion euros in the pre-Corona year 2018/19, spending rose by 14 percent, also because prices rose as a result of higher inflation.
According to the information, sales of package and modular trips increased by 31 percent to 37.3 billion euros in 2022/23 compared to the previous travel year. The market share of organized trips in the total sales of the travel market was just over 47 percent. Last year, foreign and long-distance trips as well as cruises were in particular demand again after the significant declines during the pandemic.
The ITB (March 5th to 7th) will officially open on Monday evening (6 p.m.). This year’s guest country is Oman.
Source: Stern
