Tour operators breathe easy after the end of the travel warning for many countries in Europe. The demand from large tour operators is increasing.
Hanover / Frankfurt (dpa) - After the end of the Corona compulsory break in Europe, the travel industry regains hope: The delayed summer business starts after the lifting of travel warnings for 27 European countries.
The world's largest tourism group Tui and Germany's industry leader DER Touristik reported increasing bookings on Tuesday. The companies assessed the price development differently.
While Tui spoke of average increases in prices, vacationers can, according to DER Touristik, hope for cheap offers this summer. "In some cases, our service providers make us very attractive offers," said Ingo Burmester, head of Central Europe at DER Touristik. This applies above all to destinations in other European countries. The financially strong food company Rewe is behind the organizer.
Tui wants to gradually head for more and more goals in the coming weeks. Around a quarter of the program for the main season is currently fully booked, and customer interest has "noticeably" increased in the past week. "Germany and Belgium in particular are experiencing a significant recovery," it said. There are good signs for the winter season 2020/2021 and summer 2021.
Prices would have increased by 14 percent on average, which would increase the urgently needed liquidity. In the medium term, Tui Germany boss Marek Andryszak had announced "tend to be cheaper" trips due to the high excess capacity in the upcoming program: "Prices tend to slide down rather than up," he said in May. The holiday offer is currently much scarcer than in normal times. And the current average also includes trips that were booked before the corona lockdown.
After the first Tui hotels opened in Germany and Austria, tourists had landed on Mallorca again on Monday. Customers should initially take part in a two-week trial run. A good 400 guests in two Tuifly machines started on Monday. By the end of next week, the group plans to have carried out 20 flights to Mallorca, with two aircraft for the neighboring island of Ibiza added on Tuesday.
Faro in the Algarve is also back in the program. Additional Mediterranean destinations in Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus are to follow in July, as well as vacation spots in Bulgaria or Switzerland. Half of the hotels are said to be open again in high summer. For the fourth quarter, Tui is targeting a capacity utilization of 30 percent of the originally planned capacities.
Germany's second largest travel group DER Touristik has noticed that short-term bookings have risen sharply after the travel warning was lifted. "The number of bookings is increasing week by week. July and August are some of the busiest bookings. We are getting closer to the time before the corona pandemic broke out," said Burmester, head of Central Europe.
According to the company, holidays in their own country and neighboring Austria are particularly in demand. "Holidaymakers should decide quickly for the nearby destinations, because with some offers, beds could be scarce during the summer holidays," said Burmester. DER Touristik has expanded its range for the winter 2020/21. Among other things, there are more ski holiday offers and reduced hotel prices in many places. Destinations for the coming summer season can already be booked.
Refunds for flights canceled due to the Corona crisis continue to cause resentment. According to the German Travel Association (DRV), Germany alone deals with flight tickets worth around four billion euros. These cancellations are currently not processed by the airlines and therefore could not be paid back to customers, said a DRV spokeswoman for the "Bild" newspaper. Not only the travelers were waiting for their money. "The consequences of this behavior of the major airlines are a threat to the existence of distributors licensed to sell airline tickets. They find themselves in an economic emergency because the airlines fail to fulfill their obligation to repay, or only hesitantly."
Tour operators also had to cancel travel that had already been booked during the crisis. Customers can choose between vouchers or a refund. The reimbursements for the month of April are said to have been completed at DER Touristik. Refunds for May cancellations would end in the coming days.
Confidence is also growing at the airports after the cancellation of the travel warning. "As of this week, 215 destinations from German airports can be reached again. Little by little, life is returning to the airports," said Ralph Beisel, managing director of the airport association ADV. Most routes went to destinations in Europe, but still with significantly reduced frequencies. Domestic air traffic again shows increasing occupancy figures.
THE tourism notice