Germans continued to book holidays in Turkey and Egypt in strong numbers last month while demand again weakened for Spain and, to a lesser extent, for Greece, according to package holiday booking figures for March, according to the following report by fvw.com.
Bookings of package holidays with Antalya as the destination airport rose by 86% last month as demand for Turkey accelerated again back to the high double-digit growth rates of recent months after a slower 13% increase in February. Antalya dominated sales and accounted for nearly one third of all bookings for the ten largest airports, the latest monthly figures from leading reservations provider Traveltainment showed.
In similar fashion, Egypt maintained its comeback of the last year with strong double-digit growth for both Hurghada and Marsa Alam. The main Red Sea destination airport saw a 44% rise in bookings in March like in February, and consolidated its position as the third-largest destination airport. Marsa Alam, in tenth place, grew even faster with a 46% rise, indicating good demand for holidays further south on the Red Sea coast.
On the contrary, the main Spanish holiday destinations again had a poor month on the German market. Demand for Majorca appears to be dropping significantly this year, possibly due to higher prices. Bookings to Palma fell by 17% in March, following a 22% decline in February and 15% falls in both January and December.
Similarly, the Canary Islands once again suffered sizeable drops in sales in Germany last month, even though less than in February. There were double-digit falls for Fuerteventura and Las Palmas while Tenerife (South) saw a modest 3% drop in bookings.
Notably, the top Greek destinations last month suffered their first drop in monthly bookings for a long time and after continued strong growth during the past two years, the Traveltainment figures showed. Demand for Crete weakened, with an 8% fall in bookings to Heraklion, the island’s main airport. Rhodes was down by 4% while Kos dropped as much as 11%.
The numbers cover package holiday and last-minute bookings through Traveltainment’s market-leading travel agency and OTA reservation systems.
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RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Source: fvw.com
