Please note: the following information has been compiled from the most important German-speaking Trade Media.
Current major topics within the tourism industry in the DACH region
- Many travel professionals believe 2023 will be a good year: 62 percent of the travel agency sales representatives surveyed are positive about next year. Among tour operators, as many as three quarters of the survey participants expect good business in 2023. Among hotel employees, slightly more than half are optimistic, while the remaining respondents remain skeptical. However, many of the survey participants do not believe that next year will be a sure-fire success in terms of demand, as numerous comments show. Higher prices, both for travel and in other areas of life, are likely to cause problems for some German citizens, many believe. By contrast, the luxury segment is doing well. Quite a few tourism experts are expecting fewer guests, despite the continuing desire to travel. However, many believe that higher average sales could make up for this deficit. Read more
- Europäische Reiseversicherung makes survey about the travel year 2022: In the November 2021 survey (1,500 total responses), 96% said they planned to travel in 2022. In the November 2022 survey (2,000 responses), the question asked about trips taken this year; in fact, 95% also traveled, many of them multiple times (of which more below). In the 2021 pandemic year, only 87% of Newslettter subscribers had traveled. While in the Covid year 2021 92% traveled within Europe and (included) 26% within Austria and only 8% to distant countries outside Europe, this year the share of trips to distant countries has already increased to 18%, 82% of the trips took place within Europe and only 16% within Austria. A shift of 10% points from Austria to long-distance travel. 5% were unable to take a vacation in 2022. Just under a third for health reasons. Almost a quarter said they had not been on vacation because of Covid and the associated restrictions or dangers, and a fifth had no time or money for vacation. 1,247 of the subscribers surveyed already know specifically where they will be traveling in the coming year. 398 (32%) of them will travel at least twice, 150 (12%) three times, (4%) 49 four times or more. This is pretty close to the actual travel frequencies in 2022. 71% of all travel will be within Europe, 29% of all travel will again be to distant countries or on cruise (2%). So the share of long-distance travel will increase by 11% points. America ahead of Asia ahead of Africa. Read more
- The motto of the upcoming ITB Berlin: In 2023, the tourism industry’s most important trade congress will be held under the motto „Mastering Transformation“ and will once again bring together the most important players in the international travel industry in one place: From March 7 to 9, 2023, top speakers and industry experts will discuss current challenges for the global travel industry at the ITB Berlin Convention that go far beyond COVID-19 or the partial shortage of skilled workers. They will share their expertise on topics such as climate change, energy supply issues, and a new global security architecture with multiple implications for the travel and tourism industry. The experts provide guidance and offer clear perspectives to shape the transformation process towards a sustainable and successful future. Read more
- Egypt leads the way for online bookers: According to an analysis by the IT company Amadeus and the Internet Reisevertrieb (VIR) association, by the end of February just under 32 percent of all package tours booked online were to Egypt. This is followed by Spain with 28 and Turkey with a share of 16 percent. According to VIR, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates are far behind, each accounting for around three percent of total travel, as is Thailand. The most popular destination airports are Hurghada, Antalya, Fuerteventura, Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Mallorca. Just under 78 percent of trips over the winter have a duration of 7 to 14 nights, according to the survey. Within this range in comparison to the previous year a slight shift to 14-day journeys is to be determined, so the result of the evaluation. No savings are being made on travel duration, although prices per night have risen by around ten percent, says VIR board member Michael Buller. Read more
- Full in the trend – Singles travel: Lukas Stege is no longer single, but still a passionate solo traveler whenever possible. His favorite destination is South America. There have always been travel pioneers who set out alone on adventures to unknown countries. But they tended to remain the exception. As a solo traveler, however, Lukas Stege is in good company today. In Germany, 2.41 million people traveled alone in 2021, 60.5% of them men and 29.5% women, as the Institute for Tourism and Spas Research in Kiel determined in a travel analysis commissioned by DW. It can be assumed that this form of travel gained proper momentum with the advent of YouTube and Instagram about 15 years ago. Influencers made the image of the solo traveler suitable for the masses with their cult of personality. It’s not just the travel posts by influencers that inspire, but also their lifestyle: they often travel solo, or suggest that they do so very convincingly and successfully. Anyone traveling alone today belongs to a steadily growing group of like-minded people – and is considered cool. Whether it’s an active vacation on the Balearic Islands, a study trip to Oman or a club vacation on Mykonos – the travel industry is wooing the soloists among vacationers with a wealth of tailor-made offers. These address themselves primarily to Solo Traveller, who arrive alone, in the vacation however against the society of other Alleinreisender absolutely nothing to have objected. This clientele uses thus all advantages of an organized journey: From the planned itinerary, local transportation, organized excursions to hotel booking. They see the group as an offer, but not a must. And are solo whenever they feel like it. Read more
Current topics within the transportation industry in Germany & Europe
- Low-cost airlines have become more expensive according to analysis: Flying has become noticeably more expensive, and low-cost airlines are no exception. This is shown by the latest Low Cost Monitor of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). For the airlines considered, Ryanair, Easyjet, Eurowings and Wizz Air, the range determined for average prices in the fall of 2022 is at a level of 68 to 119 euros, said DLR study leader Peter Berster. In the fall of 2019 – before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic – the range was 44 to 111 euros. What the DLR analysis confirms: Booking flights early can save big money. The price of a next-day flight can be more than 300 euros, even with low-cost airlines. However, if you book three months in advance, you will pay an average of 61 to 75 euros for a ticket. In general, prices have increased, especially for short-term bookings, while there are hardly any changes for longer-term ticket purchases, the statement continued. Read more
- Complaints about air travel more than doubled: Travel has increased significantly again this year – and the number of disputes about refunds between travelers and companies has risen accordingly. The arbitration board for public passenger transport (SÖP) expects a total of more than 28,000 complaints for the current year, as it told dpa. That would be almost twice as many as last year. In 2021, air traffic in particular was still severely restricted due to the Corona crisis. According to the report, most cases in the current year were received between August and November. Because there are often several weeks or even months between the respective travel event and the complaint, the conciliation body believes that this primarily reflects the summer travel season. This year, too, a large proportion of complaints – almost 85 percent – were received during the resurgence of air travel. Here, the number of reported conflicts more than doubled to more than 23,600. The main reason: canceled flights. Almost 44 percent of the cases relating to air traffic revolved around this issue. Flight delays played a role in just under 25 percent. Read more
- These airlines delight passengers: Airhelp, a company that claims compensation for passengers, ranks airlines annually. It is based on the factors of punctuality, customer opinions and complaint handling. The result of the 2022 ranking: only two European airlines are among the ten best in the world here – Eurowings and Austrian Airlines. Nevertheless, according to the provider, German and European airlines perform poorly on average. Serial winner Qatar Airways achieves the best results in the international comparison. With 8.1 out of a possible 10.0 points, the Qatar-based provider is the winner of the ranking – for the eighth time in a row. The U.S. carrier United Airlines follows in second place with 8.07 points. Europe’s largest low-cost carrier Ryanair (4.77 points) is the second worst airline, followed by the French airline Air Antilles (5.01 points). Among the best airlines, Eurowings takes sixth place as the best European. The LH subsidiary also shows the greatest improvement: With 7.92 points, Eurowings catapulted from 45th place (2019) to sixth place. Eurowings also performs best when it comes to dealing with compensation claims. Overall, the record of German airlines looks poor in an international comparison: German-Turkish Sun Express takes 40th place in the analysis (6.51 points), Condor 43rd (6.47 points). Lufthansa in particular, which operates most frequently in Germany among the airlines analyzed, has a low score – with 5.93 points, it ranks 53rd worldwide. Read more
Destination news
- Greece: The Greek Ministry of Tourism expects a further boost for the travel industry in the coming year. In view of numerous infrastructure projects and the development of new destinations, this target is likely to be realistic. In 2022, thousands of stores in all tourism destinations would have increased their turnover by a double-digit percentage compared to the pre-Corona year 2019, which was considered a record year.
- Hong Kong: All Hong Kong tourists had to go into self-isolation for three days, regardless of their test result. This was monitored by yellow code. Now, anyone who tests negative on entry is immediately allowed to move freely around the city. In addition, the digital „contact tracing“ app is no longer mandatory.
- Jordan: The baptismal site of Jesus in Jordan attracts some 200,000 pilgrims and tourists annually. Now, the construction of a „tourist city“ nearby is expected to multiply these crowds. Organizers hope the site for the new city, which will be outside the formal boundaries of the baptism site, will eventually attract five times as many visitors a year as the current 200,000 people, with gift stores and hiking trails, boutique hotels and botanical gardens.
- Malta: Tourism to the Mediterranean island accounts for about 15% of the gross domestic product and drove in 2019 record visitor numbers of about 2.7 million guests. After the pandemic, however, they are now slowly recovering, Bartolo tells „Travelmole“ in an interview. For 2022, the country could now record just over 2 million guests – 1.8 million were planned at the beginning of the year. Since the beginning of 2021, the current 10-year plan has been in place and will continue to be pursued. This is based on three pillars to protect the island from overtourism: Recover, Rethink, Revitalise. In the area of recreation, Bartolo thinks that the island is on the right track. Now it’s a matter of bringing all the players in the economy together so that they can benefit from each other. In the area of gastronomy, for example, locally produced food would be directly utilized according to the ‚farm to fork‘ principle.
- Morocco: The North African country has recovered in tourism. However, the German source market is nowhere near the pre-Corona days. Accessibility is still a problem for 2023. „We have reached more than 90 percent of pre-Corona visitor numbers this year,“ said Adel El Fakir, director general of the tourist board. However, „While our biggest markets, France, Spain and the United Kingdom, are recovering well, we are only recording 45 percent of 2019 for Germany.“ To catch up further in 2023, significantly more air connections are needed, El Fakir said.
- Tunisia: The Willy Scharnow Foundation for Tourism works particularly intensively with one country or region each year. In 2023, the foundation is returning to this concept for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic and has appointed Tunisia as its „partner country.
- USA: An earthquake occurred in Northern California. There were power outages in more than 70,000 homes. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the Eureka area of northern California early Tuesday.
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