"The world has become small": Travel industry in times of pandemic and war
Created: 05/06/2022, 08:00
By: Jennifer Battaglia
The team from the Peitingen "Glück auf Reisen" travel agency is happy about the increasing number of bookings: Claudia Schwarzer (left) and Silke Martin-Socher.
Short-time work for two years © Hans-Helmut Herold
Traveling has been anything but easy over the past two years.
Corona had vacation planning and thus also the travel industry firmly under control.
Weilheim-Schongau district – “Corona really topped everything,” says Silke Martin-Socher from the “Glück auf Reisen” travel agency in Peiting.
Although "smaller catastrophes" such as the Thomas Cook bankruptcy or the forest fires in Australia have already been survived, the coronavirus pandemic was a completely different number.
"The world has gotten smaller," Martin-Socher continues.
“Many countries are still not easy to travel to,” interjects her colleague Claudia Schwarzer.
The two women have been running the travel agency since 2015.
Travel industry between pandemic and Ukraine war: "People are afraid"
Very different corona rules apply to entry into the individual countries.
In order to give their customers the best possible advice, Martin-Socher and Schwarzer always have to keep an eye on the regulations.
"The website of the Federal Foreign Office is therefore our daily contact point," says 45-year-old Martin-Socher.
A considerable additional effort that did not exist before the pandemic.
"We like doing it because we feel responsible for our customers."
Compared to the two previous years, the travel agency has recorded more bookings - but the figures do not match the time before 2020.
Added to this is the uncertainty as to whether holidaymakers will actually go on the trips they have booked.
Due to the pandemic, a lot can be canceled until just before.
"We won't know how things are going for us financially until the end of the year," Schwarzer points out.
The travel agency only receives money when a trip is started.
Travel destinations have also changed due to Corona.
"Many people feel safer in the EU." Instead of flying overseas, one would prefer to go to Lake Garda.
This is also due to the Ukraine war.
"People are afraid and long for peace and security," says Schwarzer.
Some even have a bad conscience when booking, while others really want to travel.
"They think: Who knows what's coming next year."
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Travel industry between pandemic and Ukraine war: Can you still afford vacations?
Travel agent Judith Stoll shares this impression.
She is the office manager of the Tui TravelStar Volksbank travel agency in Penzberg.
"There's only one extreme or the other," she says.
"Some say they haven't traveled in two years and want to leave, while others are hesitant."
The booking situation has not yet recovered anywhere near.
Stoll and her colleague are still on short-time work - for two years at a time.
“We had extremely high losses during the pandemic,” she says.
"Two colleagues resigned last year and switched to another industry."
In February, the booking volume had only increased.
"But then came the war," says Stoll.
Many are unsure - not necessarily with regard to travel itself, but whether you can still afford the vacation at all.
"People are wondering whether they wouldn't rather leave the money they've saved for vacations in the last two years in the bank," says the travel agent.
(Our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter keeps you regularly informed about all the important stories from your region. Register here.)
Travel industry between pandemic and Ukraine war: what's coming in autumn?
"It's slowly starting again, but not like before," confirms Hannelore Seidl- Wenng from the Alpina travel agency in Weilheim.
The pensioner runs her office from home - even before Corona she had given up her premises in the city and had set up her travel agency in her apartment building.
"Corona made me so relieved that I no longer had to pay rent for an office," she says.
"I did that exactly right."
There are only a few families with children among Seidl- Wenng's regular customers, so their customers would not travel during the classic holiday season, but rather in autumn and winter, when it is summer in the southern hemisphere.
"I mainly book long-distance trips," she says.
To Asia or to the islands in the Indian Ocean.
South America is also on the rise.
"But we're still a long way from before 2020."
Seidl- Wenng is a little uncertain about the future.
Can the booked long-distance trips overseas take place this autumn and winter?
"You never know what's going to happen again in the fall," she says.
"But let's not hope that it will get worse again." But there is nothing left for her but hope.
(jb)
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