FTI’s bankruptcy is causing intense bookings for former competitors such as TUI, Dertour Group, Schauinsland-Reisen, Alltours and others. Detailed figures have not been made public, but their special offers on the occasion of FTI’s bankruptcy and the statements of many travel agencies testify to the magnitude of these bookings.
Agencies are consistently reporting very high rates of new bookings from affected customers; according to a survey by the German tourism website touristik-aktuell, which specialises in tourism issues, one in two customers at many travel agencies have already made a new booking.
This is largely related to FTI’s trip cancellations until 5 July, but also to the generous cancellation options offered by other tour operators, making it easier for customers to decide to rebook even if their planned FTI trip has not yet been cancelled. And the competition is “fighting” for every customer…
It is not known how many reservations were in FTI’s systems at the time of the insolvency filing. However, it is estimated that the number is certainly in the six figures. It is known that the FTI, Big Xtra and 5vorFlug brands are affected, with major destinations being Egypt, Turkey and Spain.
Over 9,600 new FTI customers booked with Bentour
“FTI’s reach is really huge,” says Deniz Ugur, head of Bentour Reisen. He confirms the great willingness of FTI customers to re-book, as he says that in the first ten days after the insolvency filing, Bentour re-booked 9,650 former FTI customers – mostly for Turkey and Egypt.
One of the main advantages was the flexible cancellation option up to seven days before departure. According to Mr Ugur, 74% of auto-matching requests for same-price offers were confirmed. “This figure is above our expectations and was very well received by travel agents and customers,” says the Bentour boss.
