Comparing the estimates for the year 2023 with 2024, there is a significant increase of 11.8% in total sales and a corresponding decrease of 8.8% in incoming orders, according to the German ta.ts-Reisebürospiegel.
Τa.ts-Reisebürospiegel is a travel agency in Germany, which represents and works through the Lufthansa Group. They attach importance to a high degree of customer orientation and travel sales for efficient IT solutions. This results in products and functions that automatize processes.
According to the invoiced sales data, there are increases in travel agency business, cruises, flights recorded and therefore in the number of tickets and other sales of ta.ts-Reisebürospiegel.
More specifically:
Increase of 11.8% of travel agencies included in ta.ts-Reisebürospiegel for the month of January 2024 compared to 2023. It is a fact that cruises are the main source of tourism revenues, which increased by 9.4% compared to January 2023. Individually, cruises had an increase of 27.1%.
In addition, the flight sector also had a large increase of 14.1% compared to January 2023. At the same time, the number of tickets increased by 12.7%. Other sales increased by 4.6% year-on-year.
In terms of incoming orders for the year 2024 versus 2023 in the tourism industry there was an 8.8% decrease in bookings compared to the previous year. In addition, the cruise section is down 5.6% from January 2023.
There are some orders that have not yet been fulfilled as there is a travel date of October 2024. In this remainder there is a 14.2% increase in bookings while the cruise sector has seen a 23.2% year-on-year increase.
Concern about air traffic
Meanwhile, passenger air traffic in Germany, although it rose again in 2023, the rate was lower than in other European countries, with the Federal Association of the German Air Transport Industry (BDL) expressing fears that in 2024 rising costs will have a negative impact on passenger traffic.
Registering a 20% increase in passenger numbers to 197.2 million and seat capacity at 79% of pre-pandemic levels, German airports were unable to overcome pandemic-related losses like other European airports in 2023, resulting in passenger traffic at 96% of the 2019 level, according to the BDL.
BDL chairman Jost Lammers attributes this differentiation to the sharp increase in costs from 2020, which will be further exacerbated by the planned increase in air traffic and aviation security charges next year. European, passenger traffic and domestic air traffic in Germany in particular will be affected by this development. While supply in these regions reaches only 68% and 25% of pre-pandemic levels, respectively, non-EU hubs such as the Persian Gulf and Turkey are attracting increasing passenger flows, according to BDL.
This change is favoured by the unequal charges in the EU, which Mr Lammers sees as a threat to European air traffic and investment in environmental protection.
No significant improvement is expected for 2024, with airline seats in Germany expected to increase to just 89% of 2019 levels, while the rest of Europe is expected to see a full recovery to 104% of pre-pandemic levels.
