Tourism Germany
The Monthly Travel Trade Newsletter
with information about the German outbound and inbound tourism market and the German travel industry
since 1997
Excerpts from issue No. 12, Vol. 7, December 2003
39% of Germans plan to spend less money for holidays next year because of the uncertainties of the social security system, researcher Europressedienst in Bonn commissioned by Capital magazine found out. 25% said they do not intend to cut back in any category.
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73% of German citizens living in the Eastern part of the country went on a five days or longer holiday this year (2002: 74%), researcher Leipziger Institut für empirische Forschung (LEIF) found out. Top foreign destination was Spain, followed by Austria, Italy, Czech Republic and Hungary. 6% of all East German holiday makers chose a long-haul destination. Travel spending is under pressure: The average consumption dropped € 37, now being € 840. For 2004 only 48% of the citizens instead of over 50% in the last years plan a holiday.
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The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) prepares a barrier-free web site which can be used by blind users, too. All pictures and navigation elements will be readable by screen readers and Braille tools which transform the information into sound.
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Hotels with city locations are the losers 2003, "Hotel Performance Trends 2003" of Hotelbiz Consulting in Munich reports, especially hotels in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne suffer from the slow economy. Hotel occupancy in the top 10 German cities plummeted by four percentage points to 62% in 2002. For 2003 hoteliers are expecting a minus of 6% in revenue. Hotels which specialize in wellness do better, Hotelbiz Consulting says; they enjoy a stable occupancy rate of 66%.
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easyJet plans to enter the German market next year. Starting in May, daily flights from Berlin-Schönefeld will be offered to Athens, Barcelona, Bristol, Copenhagen, London-Luton, Liverpool, Palma de Majorca, Naples, Newcastle, Nice and Paris.
Excerpts from issue No. 11, Vol. 7, November 2003
Munich-based tour operator FTI Frosch Touristik GmbH, number 5 in Germany, changed into the hands of founder Dietmar Gunz. The Austrian-born entrepreneur bought the company back from British MyTravel Group plc (ex Airtours plc) in a surprise and bargain deal. Technically the RM2366 Vermögensverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH and managing director Turan Jenei acted as buyers. FTI-CEO Georg Eisenreich, who previously had negotiated about a management buy-out, resigned hours after the take-over. Most of the former management team was quickly axed: Gisela Ruettinger, GM Charter, Walter Niggl, GM Modular Holidays, Frank Aepfelbach, Director of Sales, and Christian Scholz, Director Modular Holidays North America. PR head Kornelia Kneissl was replaced by Angela Winter. The recruitment happened partly with long-standing business partners formerly in senior positions at FTI. While Gunz will run the modular holidays business, Danish-born Lars Thuesen acts as adviser, Malta-born Joseph Beppe Bugeja will be the new package holiday manager and also responsible for the charter business, Turan Jenei will be CFO and Alexander Gessl returns as head of FTI Austria. The only new face is Kurt Uebachs, the well-known former Öger Tours and Alltours director, as a high-profile head of sales and marketing. FTI now will revert from being a general tour operator to a destination specialist with attractive prices, concentrating on Turkey, Egypt, Calabria, Tunisia, Croatia, Greece and Sardinia. Key long-haul destinations will be North America, Australia and Gambia. Other segments are language holidays and cruises.
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Holiday airline Aero Lloyd in Oberursel near Frankfurt went into insolvency and the fleet of 16 jets in Germany and five in Austria was grounded October 16. Majority shareholder Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) in Munich acted in a surprise decision to withhold further funds from Aero Lloyd. Thousands of passengers were affected since many Germans were on vacation during the fall school holidays. TUI and Thomas Cook acted as emergency clearing house and organized return flights for Aero Lloyd passengers. In the current situation, which is characterised by cutthroat competition with other established charter and discount airlines, a promising concept for the continuation of business cannot be realised, Bayerische Landesbank commented. The bank has been a lender to Aero Lloyd since 1987. During a difficult phase of the airline BayernLB took over capital shares in the enterprise in 1998 with the goal of selling them to a strategic investor at a later time. The future of Aero Lloyd was uncertain at press time. An BayernLB credit of € 5 million, negotiated by interim insolvency manager Gerhard Walter, may be used to operate aircraft on a small scale. - Aero Lloyd Flugreisen GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG, Aero Lloyd Austria Luftverkehrs GmbH, Aero Lloyd Flugreiseservice GmbH and SCC Sky Shop Catering GmbH are not involved in the insolvency. - In a general statement TUI-CEO Michael Frenzel called for a flight capacity reduction on the German market of 20% next year.
Excerpts from issue No. 10, Vol. 7, October 2003
52% of Germans did not go on any vacation this summer according to the Europäisches Tourismus Institut (ETI) in Trier. A third of that group named financial reasons, a quarter did so because of job demands. A third of all 1,500 Germans surveyed by ETI said they would go on a vacation until the end of the year.
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Avis car rental in Oberursel has started a no-frills, low-cost operation in Germany. “Avis Basic” offers two models, Opel Agila and Opel Astra Caravan, for as little as € 6 per day, depending on demand and complexity of product. They are initially available in three stations: Berlin (Budapester Strasse), Dusseldorf (Berliner Allee) and Munich (Nymphenburger Strasse).
www.avis-basic.de
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Visitors of German trade shows look primarily for information: 48% want to know about innovative products and services, 41% go there to improve their market knowledge, about a third strive for specific knowledge improvement and 29% look for exchanging experiences and ideas. Commercial interests are another important reason to attend shows. 23% of visitors look for contacts and new business, 17% prepare decisions and 7% intend to finalize sales. Foreign visitors to German trade shows have somewhat different interest patterns: 31% look for contacts and new business, about a quarter prepare procurement decisions and 10% want to sign contracts. Researcher TNS Emnid had asked 4,200 visitors of 50 trade shows in 2001 and 2002; the study was commissioned by AUMA - Association of the German Trade Fair Industry.
www.auma-messen.de
Excerpts from issue No. 9, Vol. 7, September 2003
In the year 2002 ten million business travelers in Germany made 226.5 million business trips, spending a projected total of € 48.7 billion. These are some of the findings of the VDR Business Travel Report Germany 2003, presented by VDR The Business Travel Association of Germany in cooperation with BearingPoint. VDR has pioneered to research, analyze and describe the German business travel market on a representative basis.
English Management Summary: www.vdr-service.de/web/gra/download/vdrgra2003mse.pdf
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7% of the German population over 16 years have at least once used a low-cost airline. But while 12% of persons with higher income say they have used one of the newcomers, only 5% of those within the middle income bracket have booked a flight on such a carrier. No-frills seem to be specially popular among the elite: 28% of top business people and 31% of politicians report experience with low-cost carriers. These are some of the findings of researcher Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, who had asked 2,092 people between June 28 and July 12. 89% of all those with low-cost experience confirm the carriers’ claim to be much cheaper than the traditional airlines, and 80% are convinced that the low-cost airlines contribute to more competition and generally lower prices. 65% see low-cost airlines as an alternative to rail travel. Only 25% criticize service, only 9 % on-time performance.
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The German tourist trade sold about € 3 billion worth of services last year through the Internet, € 2.15 billion of which to consumers, without counting business travel. As Munich consultant Ulysses Management also found out, total online sales in Germany accounted for € 11.41 billion. Tourism ranks higher in online sales as textiles and PC accessories.
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Sixt AG (Pullach near Munich) and Payless Car Rental System, Inc. (St. Petersburg/Florida) have launched a global vehicle rental partnership. Customers of both companies now have access to an international network of more than 1,400 rental locations in over 60 countries comprising a total of around 110,000 vehicles. The partnership includes the exclusive exchange of reservations for their respective areas, mutual acceptance of their respective methods of payment and common use of booking channels (Internet, travel agencies, reservations centers). While Sixt will cover the entire EMEA region, Payless Car Rental will be responsible for North America (USA and Canada), Central America and South America. Both companies will continue to operate in their own names in these markets.
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Germany is one of the five countries the Bush Administration will focus its $50 million international tourism promotional campaign efforts on, the others being Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Japan. Together these five markets represent 75% of the international travelers hosted in the United States in 2002 and 46% of the receipts generated in 2001. In addition, these five countries contributed more than $9 billion to the travel trade surplus. The campaign will include market and evaluation research, consumer and trade advertising and promotional efforts focused on earned and unearned media. There also will be a matching grants program to support regional promotion efforts.
Excerpts from issue No. 8, Vol. 7, August 2003
More than half of German tourists choose their holiday destination because of the climate, sun, beaches and nature there, they are less than other Europeans interested in art, culture and history, a recent study of GfK Euro Bus revealed. The majority of German tourists (similar to most Austrian vacation makers) look for recreation and opportunities to unwind. This profile is less dominant with other Europeans who also take aspects into consideration such as nice people in the host country, culture and gastronomy.
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The Travel Industry Association of America's (TIA) Market Share Indicator report shows that the U.S. market share of international travel declined in 2002 from nearly every top tourism generating market. Although there is a worldwide trend for travelers to choose less expensive short-haul travel over long-haul travel, that doesn’t explain the loss of market share for the U.S. In fact, in 2002 long-haul travel from the top tourism markets declined only 5%, while overseas arrivals to the U.S. declined 12% over 2001. The United State’s loss of market share has been going on for ten years. Since 1992, U.S. market share of all world travel is down 37%. The U.S. market share for Germany declined by nearly 8% in 2002 over 2001. The U.S. now earns only 15.1% of the important German long-haul market after having earned more than one-quarter of German long-haul travel (25.8%) a decade ago.
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From summer 2004 TUI group tour operators will include 180 Accor hotels of the brands Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis in their European range. From winter season 2003/04 onwards, Accor travel agents will sell products from the new TUI brand, which arrives on the French market in fall. TUI encompasses 81 tour operator brands throughout Europe with around 20 million customers per year. The Group also includes 3,700 travel agencies, 32 destination agencies, and carriers with around 90 aircraft. Its hotel holdings portfolio contains about 285 hotels with around 150,000 beds. Accor has facilities in 140 countries, a workforce of 150,000 and is market leader in Europe in the hotel and service industries. Accor is a top player worldwide in vacation trips, tourism and services. Accor (Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Frantour) and Seletour formed the Alliance travel agents network, operating 1074 travel agents together with their partners CIT, Lusitania, Verny and Wasteels.
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France is the most highly regarded holiday destination for Russians (15%), followed by Germany (10%), according to a recent study of GfK Euro Bus.
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Lufthansa AirPlus had a total billing of € 8.2 billion in 2002, +13% compared to 2001. The number of cards involved grew from 708,000 to 782,600. Earnings before taxes reached € 3.5 million. The cooperation with British Airways is very successful and will grow, Patrick W. Diemer, Managing Director Sales and Customer Care, says. British subsidiary AirPlus International Ltd. was able to acquire clients such as Hitachi Europe, Motorola and L’Oréal UK. Also the USA are targetted as a growth market, which AirPlus has entered with a subsidiary in 2002.
Excerpts from issue No. 7, Vol. 7, July 2003
Foreign countries, regions and cities underestimate the value of Internet domains with .de in their online marketing, domain broker Sedo.de argues. Only 30% of .de domains with a country name actually link to relevant info about that destination, the other 70% are either not activated or link to various other home pages, Sedo.de found out. Oesterreich.de (Austria in German) e.g. has no content at all, while Kamerun.de (Cameroon in German) links to a restaurant. Other registered domains such as Grossbritannien.de (Great Britain in German) or Belgien.de (Belgium in German) link to tour operators. Also city name domains are widely available with .de, e.g. DenHaag.de or SantaBarbara.de.
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Munich has the highest buying power of all bigger cities in Germany, the study „GfK-Kaufkraftkennziffern 2003“ of researcher GfK in Nuremburg revealed. The Bavarian capital is home to inhabitants who can spend € 21,884 per person and year (31.8% above national average). Second and third place take Bergisch Gladbach (€ 21,251, 27.9%) and Erlangen (€ 21,090, 27.0%), followed by Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden, Bonn, Mainz, Darmstadt and Mülheim/Ruhr. Berlin ranks no. 49 with € 16,874. National average is € 16,606. Total buying power of all German consumers in 2003 is an estimated € 1.369 billion.
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The EU Transport Council has agreed on a package of measures that passes responsibility for conducting key air transport negotiations to the European Commission. In particular, it granted the European Commission a mandate to begin negotiations on a new transatlantic air agreement. The mandate covers a wide-range of issues as, among others: traffic rights, routes, capacity, frequency, slots, fares, application of competition rules, high standards of safety and aviation security. The Council also agreed that the Commission should open negotiations with other foreign states on airline ownership restrictions and that Member States should be permitted to continue bilateral negotiation subject to a degree of Community control. "This is an historic decision. We have reached a deal that will enable the European Union to assert itself at international level and to work for the benefit of its consumers and its aviation industry" said Loyola de Palacio, vice-president in charge of Transport and Energy.
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British Airways has sold Deutsche BA (dba) to Nuremburg investor Hans Rudolf Woehrl’s Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft for one symbolic Euro. British Airways will also invest € 35 million in dba to cover operating costs and pay € 36 million leasing costs for its 16 B737 for a year. Should dba fly into profit, BA will get 25% of this along with 25% of the proceeds of any further sale up to June 2006. There will be no immediate changes, Woehrl announced, though he did demand a 20% pay cut from ground staff. dba is not thouht to become a low-cost product, but will offer a "value for money" product with "a transparent, understandable and inexpensive pricing system". New European destinations are planned for the winter schedule. Woehrl in 1974 was founder of Germany’s first rival airline to Lufthansa, Nürnberger Flugdienst NFD, which later merged into Eurowings AG, today a Lufthansa subsidiary. He also served as councillor to dba from 1994 to 2001. Together with Moritz Suter from Crossair he was founder of European Regional Airlines Association ERA. Deutsche BA was founded 1992 and never made profit since. The daily operational deficit is reported to be around € 200,000. easyJet in 2002 intended to take over dba but failed to agree new working conditions with pilots. The deal with Woehrl was reached with the help of Investment Bankers Barons Financial Services (Geneva/London).
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The Sixt AG has started a low cost product: Sixti. Initially there is a total of 1000 cars at 22 stations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, France and the UK. The standard offer includes the Smart and a second model, in Germany the Ford Focus. Pricing starts at € 5 per day including liability insurance, 100 kilometres and VAT. Additional kilometres are charged with € 0.12 to 0.15. Deep discount prices are only available in times of low demand, current prices are published in the Internet. In 2004 Sixt expects sales of € 10 to 15 million and the break-even.
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TUI, Lufthansa and Eurocard/Mastercard are the most trusted brands in Germany in the categories tour operators, airlines and credit cards, according to the study "Reader's Digest European Trusted Brands 2003". Trusted Brands are defined as brands which are seen by consumers as very trustworthy and judged in respect to product quality, image, priceworthiness and customer orientation. The results are based on written answers of 4,979 Germans, asked between September and November 2002.
Excerpts from issue No. 6, Vol. 7, June 2003
Foreign tourist offices in Germany, who invite travel agents and journalists to fam and press trips, are subject to German liability regulations as specified in §§ 651 a ff. of Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB), Anja Emig, legal advisor of the German Travel Agencies and Tour Operators Association (DRV), points out in a recent expertise. Insurance for such projects as offered by Touristik Assekuranz Service GmbH (TAS) cover damages of up to € 12.5 million and provide legal help. Members of DRV receive a € 0.10 discount per group member.
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TUI, Europe’s largest and quality-oriented tourism conglomerate, has launched a new discount brand in Germany to market excess hotel and airline capacity. Discount Travel is positioned below the budget brand 1-2-Fly and replaces the short-lived Last-Minute Fly which last summer marketed excess capacity of 1-2-Fly. The new brand, however, has access to the entire TUI product range, although it may also sell offers from external suppliers. The first brochure promotes June/July packages to 2- to 5-star hotels in 23 beach destinations on the Baleares and Canaries, in the Mediterranean region, in Bulgaria and in the Dominican Republic. Trips of between three days and three weeks can be booked anytime between three months and one day before departure. Prices for down-graded packages are 10 to 50% lower than classical products. Managing Director of Discount Travel GmbH is Ralf Horter. Background: While two to three years ago 60% of TUI’s customers booked their packages three month or more before departure, now 60% book with a lead time of eight weeks. - TUI also uses L’tur (46% TUI-owned) and Berge & Meer (75% TUI-owned) as sales channels for last-minute and low-price products. – Rival Thomas Cook uses Bucher Reisen since 1990 for the discount sale of its surplus capacities. – Last year TUI has created Hapag Lloyd Express as a low-cost airline.
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More than a third of Germans (36%) asked by researcher Emnid commissioned by publication Bildwoche after the end of fighting in Iraq said they will not travel this summer. Single and 2-person households registered a proportionally higher result here (40%). 43% of the over-60-years-old intend to stay home. Italy, Croatia and Spain were voted the most popular foreign destinations.
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Greece and Italy enjoy the highest standings as holiday destinations for German customers, research institute Innofact in Düsseldorf commissioned by newspaper Die Zeit found out. The “Reisestudie 2003” is based on answers of 10,000 Germans between 14 and 59 years. The highest awareness factor reached Egypt (58.7%), followed by Turkey (49.6%) and Greece (46.0%).
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Two traffic accidents within nine days involving German coaches in Hungary and France, killing 33 resp. 28 tourists, have prompted discussions about tightening security measures for long-haul bus travel.
Excerpts from issue No. 5, Vol. 7, May 2003
41% of Germans asked by the European Tourism Institute (ETI) in Trier and news agency dpa after the Iraq war outbreak were afraid of terrorist attacks during their vacation. Countries concerned are mainly the Arabian destinations, Turkey and the USA. While 56% said they will take a vacation this year, 27% said they will not. Three out of four think German regions are an alternative to international destinations. Fear of terrorism and diseases as well as economic instability will have a negative effect for months or even years, Martin Fontanari of ETI thinks.
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37% of German consumers prefer to buy packages when planning their main annual vacation, while 25% prefer individual travel by car. 9% said, they will book an individual flight for their holidays, magazine Stern found out. Other findings of “sternTrendProfile Reisetrends 2003” are, that more than one third plan their vacation no sooner than three months or less before departure. 60% said, political stability of the destination influences their decision concerning the destination. While last year 72% claimed, their destination choice is not influenced by terrorist attacks, this number now fell to 56%. Switzerland is considered the most safe holiday destination (61% of votes), while the USA, South America, Southeast Asia and Northern Africa are considered less safe. - Stern had asked 2,000 persons older than 14 years.
www.trendprofile.stern.de
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Only 36% of German tourists were fully satisfied with their last vacation, researcher Emnid commissioned by magazine “Auf einen Blick” found out. Of the 1,000 people asked, 55% pinned down their frustration: 65% complained about too high prices in Restaurants and Bars, 39% about bad weather, and 14% each about noise, unfriendly service and different products than promised in the catalogues.
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German hotel profits fell an average 12% in 2002, according to data released by Deloitte & Touche at a recent International Hotel Investment Conference. All hotels recorded in Deloitte`s HotelBenchmark survey of Germany reported declines in profitability, reflecting the high fixed costs of the business that could not be reduced in line with the fall in customer demand. Occupancy levels were down nearly 5%. Performance varied significantly across the various segments of the market. Those hotels with an average room rate of under € 50 experienced the smallest decline in profitability - 1.3%. The budget bracket was also the only one to report an increase in revPAR (revenue per available room) for the year, up 1.6% over 2001 levels, due mainly to a marginal increase in average room rate. In contrast, hotels with an average room rate of over € 100 reported an average profitability decline of 15.4% fuelled in part by a 7% fall in occupancy combined with a 2% decline in average room rate.
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VDR The Business Travel Association of Germany has elected a new board. At the AGM April 3 in Berlin Michael Kirnberger, travel manager of Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, was reelected with 87% of the votes as President. Also Ralph Rettig (travel manager of EDS in Rüsselsheim) and Bernd Ruttloff (travel manager of Hochtief AG in Essen) were reelected as VP and Treasurer respectively. Dirk Gerdom (travel manager of SAP in Walldorf) was newly elected to the board as representative of the corporate members. Daniela Schade (Director Sales of Avis in Oberursel) was reelected as representative of the supplier members, and Ilona De March (Managing Director of TQ3 Travel Solutions in Bremen) was newly elected as representative of the supplier members. One of the aims of the new board is to strongly support the international business travel grouping Paragon. - The group has a new web site now: www.paragon-partnership.com
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German visitors to the United States registered 1.2 million in 2002, 9% below the 1.3 million in 2001, and thus constitued the third largest overseas market after the UK and Japan, but before France. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the level of all international visitors declined 7% to 41.9 million compared to 2001. Total overseas arrivals in 2002 registered 19.1 million, 12% down from the 21.8 million in 2001. Only visitors from Mexico and South Korea registered growth in arrivals in 2002.
Excerpts from issue No. 4, Vol. 7, April 2003
Preliminary data from national travel surveys and the European Travel Monitor (ETM), as presented by IPK International at ITB, point to a 2-3% rise in European outbound travel in 2002. The ETM estimate, which is based on ten months of actual results, shows positive trends for most of the leading source countries, although France and Germany seem to have stagnated. However, Spain and Italy were up 2%, The Netherlands 3% and the UK 5%. German outbound showed mixed performances from one European destination to another but the trend to lower-cost sun & beach destinations was clear. Bulgaria was the main winner with a 2% increase out of Germany, and the Baltic states all registered positive results. The UK and Ireland both showed increases over 2001 - a reaction to last year’s declines due to foot-and-mouth - with the UK up 11%. There were declines out of Germany for both Spain (-4%) and Portugal, with the exception of Turkey (+21%), and the rest of Mediterranean was also down - Greece declined by 6%, Cyprus by 19%, Malta by 9% and Italy by 1%. Croatia, meanwhile, reported a 21% increase. Other East European destinations all reported good increases out of Germany - because they represent value-for-money destinations for budget travellers - but Hungary was an exception to the general rule, declining by 11% in terms of overnights from Germany.
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37% of German travel agents have a positive outlook for 2003, a benchmarking study of the German Travel Agencies and Tour Operators Association (DRV) from February suggests. But compared to 8% who were pessimistic last year, now 21% expect bad business in the coming months. 46% reported less sales for the winter season 2002/2003 compared to the winter before, with the number of clients decreasing more than turnover. 45% will increase marketing efforts now.
www.drv.de, „Marktforschung“
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Cruises continue to thrive: 51.6% of German cruise operators enjoyed a growth in passenger numbers last year, while 38.7% suffered declining business; 10% has stable numbers. 81% expect 2003 to be a growth year, while 16% think numbers will be stable. These are some of the results of the German Travel Agencies and Tour Operators Association’s annual study „Cruises Germany“. Richard J. Vogel (Seetours/Neu-Isenburg and DRV board member) had asked 12 national and 23 international cruise companies with ocean-going products as well as 18 national und 2 international operators of river cruises. In total there were 428,412 passengers for ocean-going voyages in 2002 (+9.2% compared to 2001). 76% of all passengers booked a cruise in European waters (2001: 66.2%). Capacity of national suppliers grew 30%, prices grew an average 3.1% (€ 62). The avarage voyage was sold for € 2051 per person (2001: € 1989). Total sales volume amounted to € 878.8 million (+12.6%).
Excerpts from issue No. 3, Vol. 7, March 2003
German consumers are holding back with buying their summer 2003 holidays despite a wide-range of early booking discounts. The Balearic Islands are showing a large drop in sales while the 2002 winners - Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey - are again selling well this year, the latest FVW trend survey among German tour operators showed. Long-haul destinations, in particular the USA, are picking up again, however. After the poor tourism year of 2002 when package holiday sales in Germany are estimated to have slumped by 5-10%, operators came on to the market for summer 2003 with a wide range of early booking and family or children’s discounts. But these are not yet turning interested consumers into paying clients, a representative FVW survey of 500 travel agencies found. Only 22% said the discounts were generating more sales while 27% said these would first pay off in the medium-term by encouraging consumers to book earlier. The largest group, 35%, said they were barely having any effect while 14% said there was no effect at all. The major trends of last year appear to be continuing into 2003. Last-minute sales and higher-value holidays are selling well but the mass market family-oriented holidays are being left on the shelves.
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47% of a panel analysed by BAT-Freizeitforschungsinstitut in Hamburg have definite travelling plans for 2003, that is the same percentage as last year. But the research, based on 5000 interviews with German consumers, also found out that 26% do not plan any holiday at all, that is two percentage points up compared to 2001. Trips lasting between five and 13 days enjoy growth (2001: 10%, 2002: 15%), while the „classical“ summer holiday with at least two weeks away from home experiences losses in market share (2001: 41%, 2002: 39%). 2003 will be highlighted by different times of travel, different destinations and different transportation modes, BAT predicts, the loser being the airplane.
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The German tourist of the year 2010 is a hybrid customer, who acts price sensitive but also appreciates status and brand products. This is a result of a study by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and F.A.Z.-Institut. The so-called e-customer as a smart shopper will book low-budget holidays and prestigious vacations at various times. Germans will be more and more challenged as „travel champions“ by Russians, Chinese and Eastern Europeans. This is not a reflection of decreasing „wanderlust“, but a result of more domestic-oriented travel and shorter trip duration to closer destinations. Spontaneous travel decisions will increase with growing acceptance of online booking possibilities. This works in favour of individually planned vacation rather than booking a long time in advance.
www.branchendienste.de
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43% of the German households (some 16 million) have Internet access, reports the Federal Statistical Office. Germany is thus slightly above the EU average of 40% (June 2002). Especially households with one or more children and households with a higher monthly household net income use a PC and the Internet at home. The share of Internet users among men (52%) is by 11 percentage points larger than that among women (41%). The majority of users consider the Internet mainly as 1. a means of communication (75% of Internet users), 2. an important source of information on products and services (65%), and 3. a source of knowledge for general and vocational education (42%). Among Internet users that are of age, every second made online purchases last year. The largest average expenditure was made on travel services (€ 522 per online purchaser). 62% of the enterprises in manufacturing, distributive trade and other service branches used the Internet for their business procedures in 2002.
Excerpts from issue No. 2, Vol. 7, February 2003
Germans spend a quarter of their household budgets for leisure activities, a total of € 286 billion in 2001. As researcher IW Cologne reports, the lion’s share (€ 110 billion) of the leisure budget is used for entertainment, package tours, sport and cultural activites. Expenses for communication grew most since 1995, whereas hotels and restaurants received 2001 only 20% of the „fun budget“ compared to 22% in 1995.
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62% of German consumers plan to spend less Euros for vacation this year compared to 2002 or cancel holiday travel totally, a recent survey of researcher forsa revealed. 60% of all households expect shrinking private budgets, 31% hope for a stable net income situation, only 7% look foreward to rising net income flows. 81% plan to cope with the worsening financial situation by cutting consumer spending, the figure being even 87% for citizens in East Germany.
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The average east German tourist spent € 877 for holidays last year, € 52 more than 2001, according to the Leipziger Institut für Empirische Forschung (LEIF). For 2003, the average east German tourist plans to spend € 1027 for holidays. 7 to 8% plan to travel to a long-haul destination. 51% of East Germans last year chose a destination in Europe, preferably Spain, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Turkey and Hungary. 12% of Germans living in the east of the country went on a package tour by bus in 2002, compared to 9% the year before.
Excerpts from issue No. 1, Vol. 7, January 2003
Germany suffered a decline of 5.9% of overseas visitors in the first nine months of 2002 compared to the same period in 2001. Their 7.3 million room nights account for about one fourth of all internationally induced room nights. The strongest markets for incoming business were the Netherlands, USA, UK, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. Noteably visitors from Spain (+6%), Russia (+6.4%), the Baltic States (+5.7%) and China (+11.8%) increase in numbers. For 2003 the German National Tourist Board DZT expects a growth of between 1 and 3%.
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Business travel will likely increase over the coming months, according to an Accenture survey of more than 400 business travelers at Germany-based companies. 85% of the survey respondents said that they expect the amount of their business travel between now and the end of the first quarter of 2003 to equal or exceed that of the past six months. This is compared with 15% of respondents who said their business travel will drop. In addition, the majority of respondents reported that their companies have placed few restrictions on travel. For example, more than 60% said their companies have not restricted reservation option changes such as business and first-class travel, and 68% reported that their companies have not restricted the use of some luxury hotels. “Despite the fact that the industry is undergoing significant change and transition, we’re seeing some positive indicators that business travel is slowly making a return,” said Guido Haarmann, a partner in Accenture’s Transportation & Travel Services industry group. “However, the recovery in Germany may take longer than in other geographies due to the slow economy.”
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About 44% of Germans visit trade fairs on a regular basis. About a quarter of them (27%) do so because their jobs require it. Contrary to private visitors, these experts – among them above all managers – tend to visit always the same fairs. These are the results of a survey by NFO Infratest (Munich) in which about 46,000 people were interviewed nationwide in the fall of 2002. About 21,000 of the people interviewed were visitors of a trade fair, a quarter of them being experts. While three years ago still 67% of Germans could be identified as trade fair visitors, this figure decreased significantly to 44% in 2002. It is also to be expected that the negative trend will continue because 29% of visitors say that they intend to go less often to trade fairs in the future. Only 4% are determined to go more often, 51% want to visit trade fairs about as often as now, the rest of the people interviewed were undecided regarding this question.
www.nfoeurope.com
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