Greece maintained its good year on the German market, with a 14% rise for Rhodes and a 4% increase for Heraklion.
Overall, the German holiday market continued its weak performance last month with a 7.2% sales drop, mostly resulting from low demand for Turkey.
German travel agents saw a 7.2% fall in leisure travel sales in August, according to the latest monthly analysis of bookings by 1,500 travel agencies by market researchers GfK. Last-minute summer bookings were weak, and early winter holiday bookings were also lower than this time last year.
The August figures left total sales to date for the 2015/16 tourism year down by 7%, with only 90% of last year’s total volume sold by the end of last month. “The accumulated losses can no longer be caught up on,” the market researchers declared.
Last-minute bookings were weak last month, meaning that total departures in August (including all bookings in previous months) were a dramatic 18.1% lower than last year. July was the only month of the summer 2016 season to show positive growth – of just 0.3%.
Weak demand for the forthcoming winter season was particularly evident last month. Winter bookings dropped by 12% in August, even though tour operators had hoped for good early demand for popular destinations such as the Canary Islands and long-haul destinations. Overall winter bookings are currently 8.1% behind last year’s levels. In comparison, winter bookings at the same time last year showed strong growth of 10.1%.
Strong declines
In terms of departure months in winter 2016/17, all are showing strong declines compared to last year with the exception of April, which is due to the timing of Easter next year. April currently has a 38% rise in bookings while March is down by 20%, according to GfK.
The latest monthly survey by IT services firm TATS showed similar trends. There was a 3.7% drop in overall travel agency sales last month, leaving sales in the first eight months of this year with fractional growth of 0.4%. Leisure travel sales fell by 7.8%, even though revenues from cruise bookings increased by 6.6%, according to the survey of some 2,500 agencies.
In terms of destinations, bookings for Turkey and Egypt again dropped last month while Spain, Greece and Bulgaria remained popular, according to figures from reservations provider Traveltainment for German package holiday bookings to leading destination airports.
Bookings to Antalya were down by 18% last month, although this was better than the 46% slump recorded in July and heavy double-digit declines in previous months. Similarly, bookings to Hurghada were 26% lower in August, continuing the destination’s double-digit drop in demand this year.
Palma confirmed its position as the major destination airport with an 18% rise in bookings last month, while bookings for the Canary Islands were good ahead of the important winter season. Las Palmas shot up by 24%, Tenerife South saw a 14% rise and Fuerteventura was up by 3%.
In Bulgaria, Varna generated a strong 43% increase in bookings, indicating high late sales for holidays on the Black Sea coast.
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