German tour operators have suffered their first revenue declines for years after massive sales falls for Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia outweighed growth for other destinations and travel products, fvw reports.
Tour operators saw their combined revenues drop by 4% to €26.3 billion in the tourism year ending October 31, which is about €1 billion less than last year, according to figures presented by the German Travel Association (DRV) at its annual conference in Berlin. Travel agency sales dropped by 2-3% to about €23 billion, with lower leisure travel sales and stable business travel sales at about €7.4 billion.
The main reason for the market downturn – the first since 2009 in the aftermath of the financial crisis – is that package holiday bookings for Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia dropped by between 40% and 60%.
DRV president Norbert Fiebig said there was clearly “a switch in the travel flows of German holidaymakers from East to West” this year, citing GfK market research figures. But he admitted that strong growth for the Western Mediterranean, long-haul destinations and cruises “could not offset the declines for Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia”.
On the positive side, Spain, and especially the Balearics and Canaries, saw strong growth this year on already very high volumes. In addition, Portugal, Greece and Bulgaria generated double-digit growth in travel agency bookings this summer.
Long-haul holidays
Moreover, Germans booked more long-haul holidays and cruises this year. Sales of cruise holidays grew by “a high single-digit figure” thanks to new ships and new offerings, according to Fiebig. Tour operators increased revenues from long-haul bookings by 3%, and the segment now accounts for 22% of travel agency sales, according to the DRV. In terms of destinations, there was good growth for the Caribbean (+16%), led by the Dominican Republic and Cuba, for Africa (+14%) and the UAE. In contrast, demand for the USA and Thailand was somewhat weaker this year.
Germany and neighbouring countries were also popular as consumers switched to self-drive destinations. However, most of these trips are self-organised with direct accommodation bookings rather than booked as tour operator packages.
Addressing some 650 conference participants, Fiebig urged the travel industry to pay attention to the increase in self-drive holidays to overland destinations (such as Germany, Austria and Italy). “The more demand for overland destinations increases, the more this business will be lost for tour operators and travel agents. Will the trend to overland destinations disappear next year or the trend to self-organised holidays also extend to simple air-based package holidays?” he asked. In response, the travel industry needed to promote its services better for this market segment, especially the security of a tour operator package holiday, he urged.
Against this background of uncertainty, the DRV is not making any overall forecasts for 2017. It noted that winter 2016/17 sales are so far behind last year’s level but said it is too early to make any forecasts for summer 2017 due to very low booking volumes so far.
At the conference, DRV members overwhelmingly re-elected Fiebig by 99.88% as the association’s president for a further three years. Among diverse other elections, Stefanie Berk (Thomas Cook), Thomas Ellerbeck (TUI) and Ren? Herzog (DER Touristik) were chosen to represent Germany’s three large ‘tourism groups’, while Johannes Zurnieden (Phoenix Reisen), Markus Daldrup (Alltours) and Pascal Zahn (Olimar Reisen) represent medium-sized tour operators. Fraport’s Susanne Schick was elected to represent the DRV’s diverse associate members.
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