The travel boom continues. In the summer, the largest tour operators recorded booking numbers at pre-corona levels. Many holidaymakers were drawn to the south – both at home and abroad.
Those who booked a holiday with Dertour this summer travelled mainly to Turkey. “One in five chose the popular holiday destination,” said product manager Sven Schikarsky. For families, it was almost one in three. The second-placed company in the industry benefited from the Germans’ desire to travel: from June to September this year, the number of guests increased by 18 percent compared to the previous summer.
According to the company, guest numbers are now roughly back to pre-coronavirus levels. The insolvency of the tour operator FTI also contributed to the increase in booking numbers, it said. FTI, previously the third largest German tour operator after Tui and Dertour, filed for insolvency at the beginning of June and shortly afterwards canceled all trips that had already been booked.
Tour operators benefit from FTI bankruptcy
Tui has also been doing well recently – the world’s largest travel company spoke of a record quarter. After the FTI bankruptcy, 75,000 additional holiday places were created for the upcoming autumn holidays. Turkey is particularly popular here too. Antalya has pushed Mallorca out of first place as the most popular destination.
In addition to Turkey, the most popular short- and medium-haul destinations at Dertour included Spain (second place), Greece (third place) and Egypt and Italy (shared fifth place). Germany was able to maintain fourth place despite falling demand. The reason for the drop in domestic guests was the bad weather, said Schikarsky. “The sometimes heavy rainfall and relatively cold temperatures at the beginning of June meant that many guests opted for sunny destinations.”
The most popular travel destinations in Germany
But those who decided to vacation in Germany in the summer of 2024 mainly traveled to Bavaria. One in six people who vacationed in this country stayed in the southern federal state. This is shown by a representative survey by the consumer panel service GfK, which belongs to YouGov. The survey was carried out on behalf of the German Retail Association (HDE).
Bavaria was followed by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (11 percent), Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia (10 each), Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein (9). According to the survey, almost half of consumers in Germany traveled this summer. One in three of them went on holiday within Germany.
Domestic summer holidays are an important economic factor
According to YouGov, people who went on holiday in the north of Germany preferred to spend their time by the sea, on the coast or on an island. In the south, many went to the mountains. The most common type of trip was a family holiday (37 percent), followed by a beach and bathing holiday (28), a city trip (26) and a hiking holiday (21). Multiple answers were possible here.
According to estimates by the HDE, people from Germany spent a total of around five billion euros in retail during their summer vacation in their own country. Most of this was spent on food and drinks, visits to restaurants, and on leisure activities and souvenirs. “Domestic tourism boosts sales in retail. After all, vacation time is also shopping time,” said HDE General Manager Stefan Genth. Summer vacations in one’s own country are an important economic factor.
Long-distance travel and “coolcation” are trending
Those who didn’t feel like vacationing on their own doorstep were drawn to faraway places. Dertour reported a 37 percent increase in guests on long-haul routes. “Destinations such as the United Arab Emirates or the Indian Ocean are now firmly established among summer destinations,” said Schikarsky. The most popular long-haul destinations continue to be the USA and Canada.
In addition, a new trend is emerging in view of the increasing heat: the “coolcation”. This is a combination of the English terms “cool” and “vacation”. Although most Germans travel south in the summer, more and more tourists want to go to cooler regions. According to Dertour, the Scandinavian countries were in greater demand in the summer of 2024, especially Norway.
Source: Stern
