Many people are ready for vacation and want to travel – inflation or not.
The summer of 2023 promises to be good for the industry.
However, higher prices are to be expected.
Berlin/Fulda - A classic is also very popular this summer: the Mediterranean.
At the largest German tour operator Tui, the Turkish Riviera, Mallorca and the Greek islands are the top 3. "The travelers from Germany are loyal to their favorites," said a spokesman.
Vacation 2023: These are the most popular travel destinations for Germans
These destinations are also among the most popular summer travel destinations for the air travel provider Alltours, and the Canary Islands and Egypt are also included.
The Anex Group paints the same picture with the brands Öger Tours, Neckermann Reisen, Anex Tour and Bucher Reisen: For all countries on the Mediterranean, advance bookings for the summer of 2023 are clearly up 115 percent on the previous year.
At the DER Touristik group, with the brands Dertour, ITS and Meiers Weltreisen, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Germany and Italy are particularly in demand on short and medium-haul routes.
On long-haul routes, these are North America, destinations on the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean, as well as Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
With regard to Germany, however, the information provided by the organizers varies between strong and less high demand.
But that is not surprising.
The reason: After the corona pandemic, when vacations in Germany were booming due to many travel restrictions, the conditions of the pre-corona period returned, as shown by a current travel analysis by the research association Holidays and Travel (FUR).
According to this, Germany was the number one travel destination for German citizens in 2022 with a share of 27 percent.
73 percent of trips went abroad.
That could look similar this year.
In the Fulda district, too, “demand is unbroken”, as Frank Happ from the Happ travel agency reports to the Fuldaer Zeitung.
In terms of destinations, the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Greece, Croatia and Turkey are in demand - just like before Corona.
“What is striking is that we now also have many inquiries for long-distance travel to the USA, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, the Maldives and Mauritius and also the Emirates.
We already see a need to catch up here, because almost nothing worked in this area for three years,” adds Happ.
Inflation and staff shortages: will travel become more expensive this summer?
Due to the higher energy costs and flight prices, trips have become more expensive overall.
“Travel is a luxury good.
But based on our experience over the past few months, we can say that people don't cut corners when travelling.” A lot of things are already fully booked for the Easter and summer holidays.
“Cruises in particular are in high demand, the ships are full.
There are now hardly any family cabins at halfway reasonable prices for the sunny destinations in the western and eastern Mediterranean,” reveals Happ.
Joachim Teiser from Reisewelt Neuhof reports something similar: “We had our trade fair at the weekend, which exceeded all expectations.
That showed how great the interest in travel is.” There is a clear trend towards package tours – including among younger people.
The pandemic has changed a lot: the safety that such a trip offers from a single source is important to people.
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Many people are ready for vacation and want to travel – inflation or not.
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© Clara Margais/dpa
"In addition to cruises, we are particularly interested in active trips, everything that has to do with hiking and trekking," reports Teiser.
Popular destinations are Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, but also East Africa with Kilimanjaro.
“We already had eight groups there this year alone,” reveals Teiser.
It is well known that travel has become more expensive, and people are currently quite willing to make concessions.
"But I also think that the markets will level off again and that travel prices will not remain at this high level in the long term," he admits.
For this summer, the question still arises: Do we generally have to expect higher prices?
There is no general answer to this, for many areas the answer is: probably yes.
Example flight prices: According to a search query analysis by the travel search engine Kayak, flights for this summer (specifically: between June 1st and September 15th) have become significantly more expensive on average - in Europe from 244 euros (2022) to 298 euros (2023). Increase of more than 20 percent.
On the long-distance route, the increase from last summer to this summer was about the same.
Prices climbed from an average of 738 to 893 euros.
Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr recently announced rising ticket prices for the current year.
Offer too small: Experts advise against last-minute trips
According to a survey by the German Holiday Home Association and the German Tourism Association, holiday homes and apartments are also becoming more expensive.
On average, their rent costs almost six percent more than in 2022. Around three out of five private and commercial landlords surveyed have increased their prices for this year.
And with a view to package tours for the 2023 summer holidays, the travel booking and rating portal Holidaycheck had already written in December, based on its own price analysis, that they were “in some cases drastically more expensive”.
So book last-minute trips instead?
Not a good idea.
In fact, last-minute bookings are looking rather bad.
Alltours says, for example: Because of the increased demand in the 2023 summer season, there are not many last-minute bargains to be hoped for.
"Early bookers have an advantage today," said the Tui spokesman.
Starting with the airlines, there is a paradigm shift in the entire industry, he explains: "With the low-cost airlines, early booking has long been cheaper than late booking, and the hotels are adapting to this business logic.
In this way, they can utilize their capacities more reliably.” The good news: In fact, there are still discounts for summer bookings, with many tour operators offering early bird discounts until the end of March.
ITB in Berlin
The International Tourism Exchange (ITB) is currently taking place again in Berlin.
This year, the trade fair is all about the boom in tourism after the Corona crisis.
"The bottom of the year 2021 has finally been passed," said the President of the German Travel Association DRV, Norbert Fiebig.
"We expect to close at the sales level of the record year 2019 (...)."
It is the travel industry's first post-pandemic gathering.
In contrast to the pre-Corona years, the ITB (March 7th to 9th) is now only open to trade visitors.
Guest country this year is Georgia.
However, if you are flexible in terms of travel destination and period as well as hotel classification, you definitely have a chance of last-minute bargains.
However, if you have a very specific dream holiday in mind, you should not speculate on it.
Several tour operators are also registering increasing demand for all-inclusive offers.
The Anex Group, for example, says: In Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia, which have an all-inclusive share of more than 90 percent in the hotel portfolio, the trend can be seen clearly.
“Because these holiday destinations are showing particularly high growth and are particularly popular with families.” That makes perfect sense, because it creates a certain degree of budget security when you know that there will be little or no additional costs for food and drinks on holiday.
Finally, the question arises as to whether chaotic conditions at the airports can be expected again this year.
Above all, the lack of personnel in air traffic caused considerable problems at the airports last summer and thoroughly spoiled the start of the holiday for many.
Whether it will be like this again this summer or whether everything will be better cannot be said with certainty.
Travel summer 2023: will there be chaotic conditions at airports again?
In any case, the staff bottlenecks in the industry have not been completely overcome.
Lufthansa has cut its summer flight schedule.
Motto: Better to create planning security now than having to cancel flights at short notice.
The North American travel specialist America Unlimited recorded a “rapid increase” in the number of direct flights booked this year.
The explanation for this lies in the flight chaos in 2022: It is known from many customer discussions that holidaymakers avoid transfer airports and hubs for fear of a repeat - and also accept additional costs.
So while many tourists and holidaymakers are apparently also expecting waiting times and flight cancellations in 2023, the tour operator Alltours is quite optimistic about the summer of flights: “In our opinion, the airports have learned from the past and taken numerous measures.” One is confident that the situation will improve at the airports will normalize this year.
(with dpa material)
List of rubrics: © Clara Margais/dpa
