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
- Inflation remains the biggest concern – far ahead of Corona: Rapidly rising prices in almost all areas of life are currently causing people in Germany greater concern than anything else. Even the war in Ukraine can’t keep up, let alone the Corona pandemic. This is the result of a representative survey published today, Monday, by the management consultancy McKinsey. Around 48 percent of the 1,000 or so respondents to the survey in mid-June said that their biggest concern at the moment was inflation – a significant increase in April. At that time, 40 percent of respondents had cited price increases as their main concern. „Consumer concerns about further price increases are becoming entrenched,“ said McKinsey expert Marcus Jacob. Fear of the Ukraine war, on the other hand, has decreased in recent months. Whereas in April, one in three respondents (34 percent) had named the invasion of Ukraine as their greatest concern, in June only one in four (24 percent) did so. Despite the current high infection figures, not even one in twenty (4 percent) named the Corona pandemic as their greatest concern. Read more
- A quarter of Germans forgo summer vacation due to inflation: After two years of the Corona pandemic, many people are more eager to travel than ever before. However, it appears that many people will not be taking a vacation this year. A total of a quarter of Germans are foregoing their vacation this year because of this. The reason is inflation and the resulting rise in the cost of food, energy and fuel. This was the result of a representative survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey exclusively for Business Insider. In addition, the survey reveals that 13 percent of respondents are taking fewer vacations due to inflation and five percent are planning a cheap vacation. For 57 percent of all Germans, however, nothing has changed in terms of vacation planning despite rising prices. The survey also shows that women are slightly more likely to forgo vacations than men. While 22 percent of men forgo a trip because of inflation, the figure for women is 28 percent. Even taking into account the statistical error of up to 3.6 percent, the difference remains clear. One reason for this could be the gender pay gap. For even last year, the average hourly wage of men was 18 percent higher than that of women. Working women in Germany therefore have to get by with significantly less income on average, and inflation hits them harder. Women also receive hundreds of euros less in average pensions than men. Read more
- Package tour also goes with the private jet: Few contacts and therefore a lower risk of contagion: private jets experienced an increase in demand during pandemic times. For many jet operators, the upturn in tourism more than compensated for losses in the mice business. „During Corona, demand went up extremely,“ says Dieter Pammer, director of business development at Globe Air. He made a virtue out of necessity – initially an „airlift“ for stranded luxury vacationers: the Austrian airline specifically offers its services to tour operators. And it is not alone in doing so: In 2020, Swiss national Niclas Seitz founded Travelcoup Deluxe, a tour operator that offers package tours by private jet from several German cities, for example to the Mediterranean. In times when flight chaos is making headlines, providers are betting that the trend will continue: The private jet entices with short waiting times and quickly completed formalities at the VIP terminal of the airport. To the machine it goes then in its own transfer. Only the seats in the low and cramped aircraft are sometimes less comfortable than in the wide-body jet. Whether private flights are an acceptable option in times of climate change is debatable. Climate agencies estimate that CO₂ emissions per person are up to 20 times higher than on a wide-body aircraft. Nevertheless, virtually all providers compensate for the emissions, whereas this is only a voluntary – and hardly used – option for scheduled passengers. Read more
- Swiss business travel increases noticeably: In Switzerland, the number of business air trips has been rising steadily since the beginning of the year. According to the Business Travel Index of corporate payment specialist Airplus International, almost three times as many flights were booked via Airplus in Switzerland in May 2022 than in January. As travel business picks up, the gap to the pre-crisis year 2019 is also melting from month to month. In the month of May 2022, the billing volume in Switzerland was only 15.1% below the level of May 2019. In addition, a slight trend towards more expensive booking classes as well as longer travel duration is becoming apparent in this country. It is noticeable that Swiss companies are making travel more expensive in the current year and are increasingly allowing their employees to travel in business class. On intercontinental flights, the share of business class flights increased by 2.3 percentage points to 50.5% from January to May 2022 compared to the pre-Corona year 2019, and on European routes by 1.9 percentage points to 5.%. This trend is most noticeable on Swiss domestic routes: Here, the business class share increased by 18.8 percentage points to 26.4% in the first five months of 2022 (Jan-May 2019: 7.6%). Read more
- Sales climate deteriorates for the first time this year: Following last month’s jump in the assessment of the current situation, the trend in July is now down again (July: 55%; June: 65%). Although the current situation in the distribution of travel services continues to be rated as good by the majority, the proportion of participating travel agencies that rate the situation as only satisfactory has risen again to 39% (previous month: 28%). The year-on-year sales of travel services are also rated slightly more negatively again in July. The biggest difference compared to the previous month can be seen in the assessment of demand for travel services in the next six months. Only just under half of the participating travel agencies say that demand will increase in the next six months (previous month: 75%). Thirty-eight percent expect demand to remain the same, 14 percentage points more than in June. There is also a marked increase among those who expect demand to fall (13%; previous month: 2%). Read more
Current major topics within the aviation industry in Germany and Europe
- Germany leads Europe in flight cancellations: According to the Mabrian list, Germany leads the negative top ten with a share of around 6.1 percent of cancelled departures, followed by Austria with 4.5 percent, the Netherlands with 3.5 percent and the United Kingdom with 3.2 percent. Germany also tops the list in terms of the absolute number of cancelled flights, with almost 1,500 cancellations; the United Kingdom comes in second with 1,060. Among the airlines, the Mabrian analysis found Turkish Airlines to be the worst performer, with a 6.7 percent share of cancelled flights. Easyjet follows behind. The low-cost carrier cancelled 5.5 percent of its flights. According to Hopper, Brussels Airport recorded the highest proportion of delayed flights with a share of 72 percent, ahead of Frankfurt with 68 percent, Eindhoven with 67 percent and London-Luton with 66 percent. Budapest, Lisbon, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam and Nice also had delay rates of over 60 percent. The best performing airports in this respect were Bergamo (3 percent), Gran Canaria (8 percent) and Bucharest (10 percent). Read more
- Significant increase in June 2022 at Vienna Airport: Vienna Airport continues to record an upswing in June: passenger numbers in June 2022 are about three times higher than in June of the previous year (2021) with 3,067,003 travellers in the Group (Vienna Airport, Malta Airport and Kosice Airport) and with 2,400,515 travellers at the Vienna site. Compared to the pre-crisis level, passenger traffic in June 2022 is 81.4% of June 2019 in the Group and 80.4% at the Vienna site – still about 20% lower than before the Corona pandemic. At the Vienna site, the number of local passengers increased to 1,775,789 passengers (+233.1%) and transfer passengers to 617,492 passengers (+227.7%). Aircraft movements increased to 18,140 takeoffs and landings (+120.6%). Cargo volumes decreased by 6.4% to 19,981 tons compared to June 2021. Read more
- Lufthansa returns to profit: According to Lufthansa, Group revenue more than doubled year-on-year on a preliminary and unaudited basis between April and June in the face of a sharp rise in demand. Overall, the airlines of the LH Group generated revenue of 8.5 billion euros in the second quarter – compared with only 3.2 billion euros in the same period last year, which was still affected by the Corona lockdown for long periods. The Group’s adjusted operating profit (adjusted EBIT) was between 350 and 400 million euros. In the previous year, a loss of 827 million euros had been incurred. According to the Group’s own statements, it benefited in particular from the continued strong performance of Lufthansa Cargo. Lufthansa Technik achieved a similarly high result to the first quarter. Read more
- Airport parking has become significantly more expensive: On average, travellers at German airports currently have to pay around 54 euros per week for the cheapest parking space near the terminal, according to consumer protection experts. In 2021, this figure was still 42 euros. The prices for the most expensive parking spaces also rose from an average of 143 euros to almost 177 euros per week, according to the analysis. The price differences are enormous. At Dresden and Leipzig/Halle Airports, air travellers can park close to the terminal for as little as 15 euros a week, according to the VSVBB. This is the lowest value in the analysis, it says. At Dortmund Airport, the same offer would cost at least €99. Hamburg (€89) and Munich (€87) also had the lowest prices for parking close to the terminal at their respective airports. There were also particularly drastic increases for short-term parking at German airports. Last year, one-hour parking still cost consumers an average of nine euros, but now twelve euros per hour are already due, according to the VSVBB. Read more
Destination news
- Belize: Those who want to travel to Belize no longer have to comply with Corona requirements. Effective immediately, the requirement to present proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative corona test upon entry is eliminated. According to the Belize Tourism Board, this also applies to cruisers.
- Indonesia: Beginning July 17, visitors who do not have a booster vaccination against coronavirus will again be required to present a negative antigen or PCR test when entering Indonesia.
- Sri Lanka: After Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives, a state of emergency was declared in the country. In addition, an indefinite curfew is in effect. Due to the severe economic crisis, there is also a shortage of essential goods. For these reasons, the German Foreign Ministry currently advises against unnecessary travel to Sri Lanka.
- Italy: In Italy, numerous flights were cancelled on Sunday due to a warning strike. Nationwide, slightly more than 200 flights were cancelled at airports. This mainly affected domestic Italian connections, as could be read on the websites of the major airports. But also air travellers who wanted to go from Milan to Frankfurt or Berlin could not take their flight. At the airports in Rome, connections outside Italy to Paris, Amsterdam, London or Zurich, among others, were cancelled.
- Abu Dhabi: The summer months are not necessarily the peak travel seasons for Abu Dhabi. To attract visitors, the Gulf emirate offers, among other things, the Summer Pass – which grants discounted or even free admission to numerous attractions and sights.
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