German tourism: Strong demand for Greece continues in 2018

Greece will again among the most popular package holiday destinations in the coming year for German tourists, according to DRV president Norbert Fiebig, fvw.com reports:

Overall, the German tourism industry is looking ahead optimistically to 2018 after overcoming setbacks such as airline and tour operator insolvencies to generate solid low growth last year.

The German tour operator market raised turnover by about 4% in summer 2017 and by at least 2% for the full 2016/17 business year, according to sales analysis by market researchers GfK. However, several leading tour operators have reported higher growth rates. In addition, cruise holiday sales continued to grow strongly last year, probably again at a double-digit rate, according to experts.

German travel industry association DRV expects further market growth and similar demand trends again in 2018 as last year.

“We predict that Mediterranean destinations such as Spain and Greece will again be the most popular package holiday destinations in the coming year,” said DRV president Norbert Fiebig at the end of December. Spain maintained its top spot in the German destination ranking last year while Greece grew by 30% to overtake Turkey in second place.

Fiebig was also optimistic about prospects for three major destinations that have suffered setbacks during recent years. “The growth path of Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey will also continue in all likelihood in 2018,” he said. Egypt (+55%) and Tunisia already made strong comebacks last year while demand for Turkey, which again suffered a drop in German tourists in 2017, is picking up for next summer, according to tour operators.

The DRV also sees continuing strong demand for cruise holidays in 2018 along with good sales of long-haul holidays, albeit slowed by the impact on demand of serious hurricanes in the Caribbean last autumn.

In accordance with these forecasts, Thomas Cook Germany reported last month that summer 2018 bookings are strong for Spain, especially Majorca, as well as Greece and Bulgaria, while Turkey is recovering with a double-digit rise in customer numbers, and Egypt and Tunisia are continuing their comeback.

These numbers and predictions have left German travel agents in an optimistic mood, according to the latest monthly fvw ‘sales climate index’. This soared to a new all-time high of 120.7 points in December. More than half (57%) of the survey participants described their current sales figures as good. Nearly one third (31%) expect rising demand in the coming months, while more than half predict at least stable sales.

Top travel agency figure Thomas B?sl, head of the RTK and Reiseland cooperation groups and spokesman for the QTA mega-alliance, welcomed the sales growth but also pointed out the “immense” workload in travel agencies over the last few months due to the insolvencies of Air Berlin, Niki and JT Touristik. “That takes a lot of strength – and all for zero euros,” he commented. “And 2018 will not be any less hard work,” he predicted.