The bankruptcy of the FTI Group had a profound impact on the German travel market and led to significant changes. The consequences of this bankruptcy for the travel agency industry were shed light on yesterday’s panel discussion at ITB Berlin 2025, with the main topics being how the market has been reorganized and who benefits from the new market structure.
- The experts on the panel agreed that demand for higher quality products has increased since FTI’s bankruptcy and that package holiday sales have seen a significant recovery.
Roland Gassner from the market research institute Travel Data + Analytics opened the session with a presentation on the current situation in the tour operator market. “Since 2022, the turnover in the travel market has grown faster than the number of travelers,” he said. This finding confirms the growing demand for higher-quality products.
Stronger focus on sustainable business development
Dr. Ingo Burmester, CEO of Central Europe at DERTOUR Group, stressed that the market has changed since the bankruptcy.
Tour operators and travel agents are focusing more on sustainable business development, he said, adding: There is a strong focus on quality and trading on equal terms. There has been a shift towards higher quality.
In his opinion, those who benefited most from the FTI bankruptcy were travel agencies, which have experienced a real recovery. The quality of products is higher in travel agencies, said Mr. Burmester. In addition, the bankruptcy of large tour operators has led to the return of package tours because they are more resilient to the crisis. “Package holidays are also experiencing a revival,” he said.
Benjamin Jacobi, CEO of TUI Deutschland, also noticed a trend towards higher quality products, but the group, which also owns an airline, also has to keep an eye on passenger volumes: “Overall, we want to expand the level of service and further diversify our range with new, innovative products.”
Song?l G?ktas-Rosati, CEO of Bentour Reisen, was very pleased with the increasing demand after FTI’s insolvency. “We offer our customers good alternatives and good service.” As for the shift toward higher quality, she attributed it more to the pandemic than to FTI’s bankruptcy.
Since the pandemic years, people have wanted to book higher quality vacations, he stressed.
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
