In 2020, the corona pandemic brought the tourism industry the worst crisis in post-war history.
Lack of opening perspectives, uncertainty in the corona pandemic and the discussion about advance payment for travel: After the historic crash in the corona crisis in 2020, the tourism industry is initially heading towards hard times. Travel agencies and tour operators in Germany are seeing the first glimmer of hope, but they are still a long way from old record levels. Due to the pandemic, the travel fair is taking place online this year and exclusively for trade visitors.
New bookings for organized trips for the summer season are slowly picking up, said the president of the DRV travel association, Norbert Fiebig, at the International Tourism Exchange (ITB) in Berlin on Tuesday. So far, however, they have only reached 26 percent of the level in the same period of the previous year, which was not influenced by the pandemic. “It would be considered a success if we achieved around 50 percent of the sales volume of 2019 for the travel agency and tour operator market,” said Fiebig, confirming the forecast for the current travel year.
“annus horribilis”
After the record year 2018/19, sales from organized travel during the corona crisis fell by 65 percent to 12.5 billion euros in the past tourism year 2019/20. Fiebig spoke of an “annus horribilis” – a terrible year for the industry.
DER Touristik is primarily focusing on the second half of the year. “I hope that we will still have a very strong second half of 2021,” said CEO Sören Hartmann. He expects “fundamental changes” in the market structure as a result of the pandemic. Customers booked significantly more trips that they could reach with their own car. That will not change in the coming year and a half. Bookings would become much shorter, customers would like more flexibility and easier cancellation options.
Debate about prepayments
In addition, there is the debate about prepayments for booked trips that are used to pay for service providers such as airlines and hotels. Many trips had to be canceled during the pandemic. The customers had noticed that it was sometimes not easy to get the money back, said Hartmann. The entire financing chain of the tourism industry must change.
Consumer advocates have long been calling for an end to prepayment when traveling. They recently received a tailwind from politics from the Saarland Consumer Protection Minister Reinhold Jost (SPD). If Jost has its way, vacationers should no longer be asked to go to the cash desk in advance when booking flights or trips. This is to be discussed at the next meeting of the heads of ministries of the federal states.
Opening perspective is missing
Last year, the corona pandemic stopped the trend towards foreign holidays, not least because of travel warnings for most countries. So far, there has been no clear opening perspective for vacation in one's own country this year, as the German Tourism Association (DTV) has repeatedly complained about. The desire to travel is great. “The uncertainty is still extremely high at the moment, which is accompanied by a reluctance to book,” reported DTV managing director Norbert Kunz.
According to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (Dehoga), the situation is dramatic after a seven-month lockdown in the German hospitality industry. Since the beginning of March 2020, sales have plummeted by a total of 63.0 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. According to this, 72.2 percent of entrepreneurs fear for their existence. At the latest at the next meeting of the Prime Ministers with Chancellor Angela Merkel on March 22nd, there must be a concrete timetable for when the restaurants and hotels can receive guests again, the association demanded.
Travel wish high
Surveys give the tourism industry hope that people's desire to travel is in principle high. Above all, security in times of pandemic is important to them. TUI boss Fritz Joussen expects the market to develop very well after the crisis. Among other things, the increasing aging of society speaks for this. Many older people have time and money to travel.
According to the market research company Euromonitor International, global tourism will ideally have recovered in 2022. Travel spending could then return to pre-crisis levels, provided the pandemic can be brought under control. Will the vacation be different then? Not necessarily. Tourism expert Martin Lohmann expects that people will return to old travel patterns after the end of the pandemic.
