People’s desire to travel is driving good booking sales – and will probably continue to do so, as prices are not going down any time soon. “We expect price increases in Europe within the inflation corridor of around 5 percent for the winter,” says an industry expert.
According to Ingo Burmester, head of Central Europe at the German travel group DER Touristik, about 80 percent of guests are already booking before the corona pandemic, also to get early booking discounts. But for bargain hunters, things have gotten harder.
Last minute not attractive
This summer has also shown that short-term bookings are less attractive in terms of price than previous years. One reason: “In the short term, there aren’t as many top airline offerings because they have less capacity.”
Expensive travel is booming
According to Burmester, the trend towards higher quality travel continues. “A small proportion of guests are currently not booking, possibly because they can’t afford it due to inflation.” For many, on the other hand, the trend is towards more expensive travel. “Our evaluations show that higher hotel categories and high-quality all-inclusive offers are in constant demand.”
Corona crisis shaken off
The second largest European travel group after TUI has left the consequences of the Corona crisis behind. “In the summer, we were well above the level of the summer before the pandemic in terms of turnover in the group. That has not yet been fully achieved in terms of guest numbers,” says Burmester. According to him, the winter business has also got off to a good start.
“In the German market, we have seen a large share of winter bookings since May, with almost 20 percent more sales than before the pandemic.” come back strong. DER Touristik Deutschland comprises the tour operators Dertour, ITS and Meiers Weltreisen.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
