Holiday sales in German travel agencies dropped by 10% last month as the terror attacks in Egypt and Paris kept consumers away from holiday bookings.
November was one of the weakest sales months in recent years, according to the monthly survey of some 1,200 travel agencies by market researchers GfK. Key factors behind the overall 10% drop in revenues were the terror attacks but possibly also fears that refugees might pose a risk to jobs, the researchers suggested.
The figures confirmed comments about very low demand made by various tour operators and travel agents in the last few weeks.
Cumulated sales figure
Bookings for summer 2016 holidays (May – October) were 13.6% lower last month than in November 2014, pushing the cumulated sales figure to a 4.6% decline, the GfK survey found. However, summer sales got off to a strong start last autumn thus accentuating the difference to this year’s figures.
Demand for winter holidays was also weak, with a 9.3% decline year-on-year in November, although the cumulated figure is still 5.8% ahead of last year. Looking at all bookings to date, December is selling well, up by nearly 14% compared to last year, but January (+2.9%) and February (+2.7%) have moderate growth, while March and April are only slightly ahead of last year.
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