Nuremberg, July 10, 2019 – The last-minute business with summer vacations has visibly picked up in the booking month of June. However, only online sales benefited from this: a sales increase of 16 percent on travel portals adds up to a fall of four percent at the stationary travel agencies totaling two percent of summertime’s additional sales. Overall, the monthly balance of June is one percent lower than the same month’s revenue in the previous year. The early winter holiday bookings for the coming season 2019/20, accounting for approximately a quarter of the monthly sales, could not reach the previous year’s level.
About 1,2 billion euros were spent by the Germans in the past booking month June for their holiday trips booked in travel agencies or online. With just under two-thirds of the monthly turnover, summer holidays remain the focus of the customers. In particular, short-term booked travels increased in terms of revenue: 31.1 percent of sales in June were accounted for by vacation bookings with short-term departures in June or July 2019. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of 2.7 percentage points.
Overall, the summer sales achieved in June 2019 are two percent above the previous year, however, this does not change the cumulative summer balance: as in the previous month, the current summer season shows a drop of two percent compared to the good summer of last year. According to the current booking status, 81 percent of the summer bills of the previous year have been achieved – compared to 91 percent a year ago, which was significantly more. How much to catch up this year will be decided by the short-term business in the upcoming booking months. However, after a hot June, the current weather conditions with much cooler temperatures could certainly boost last-minute bookings.
The most recently departed travel month June ends with a sales increase of 11.2 percent. In addition, the travel months ahead have slightly improved compared to the past month: July is currently down to a minus of 2.1 % (previous month: -2.8 percent); August is still 1.4% lower than the previous year (previous month -2.0 percent) and September climbs from minus 4.4 percent in the previous month to currently minus 3.8 percent. In return, the plus in the autumn travel month October has dropped from 4.7 to 2.6 percent.
Legend:
The chart shows the travel revenues generated in June 2019 and cumulated until the end of June 2019 for the 2019 summer season compared to the previous years. Holiday travel bookings both in stationary travel agencies and online on travel portals of the organizers and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) with a focus on package tours are taken into account. The left-hand side of the chart shows how much revenue has been accumulated in percent for the summer season compared to the previous year’s season (final result).
About Travel Insights
The tourism sales panel Travel Insights is based on booking data from approximately 2,000 travel agencies, which represent the stationary distribution market in Germany in a representative way. In addition, booking data of the classic travel portals and tour operators is gathered online. Projected to the overall market, Travel Insights’ evaluations allow reliable conclusions on the booking and travel behavior of German tourists. Current trends and developments in the tourism market can be traced in a timely manner. The core business of travel agencies and the online travel portals of the organizers and so-called OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) is based on package holidays or vacations booked by.
Weitere Informationen: Sven Bochmann, info@traveldataanalytics.de, Telefon: +49 (0)911 951 510 00
About Travel Data + Analytics
Travel Data + Analytics GmbH (TDA), founded by Dr. Markus Heller, took over the tourist trade panel of Travel Insights from GfK in April 2019. Until the end of the current tourism year 2018/19, i.e. until the end of October 2019, the booking data of the travel distribution and analyses will continue to be processed by GfK’s systems. At the same time, system development is executed on the part of TDA. With the completion of the transition phase, all booking data will be loaded retroactively from the tourism year 2016/17, in order to ensure a seamless transition. The Travel Insights team will continue their work as an independent and autonomous entity from Nuremberg.