Nuremberg, February 29, 2024 - January last year had already broken sales records when Germans' desire for holidays returned with a vengeance after a meagre early booking phase. The fact that this year's January 2024 can still surpass the previous year's month despite a return to the previous strength of early bookings speaks for a remarkably stable holiday demand in the German market. In January 2024, German citizens spent around 3.3 billion euros on their holiday trips organised as packages or building blocks. This corresponds to an increase of 7 per cent compared to the same month last year.
The sales growth in January 2024 is attributable to the upcoming summer season and is made up of an average increase in travel prices of about 4 per cent plus an increase in the number of people booked of around 3 per cent compared to the same month of the previous year. Cumulatively, the summer season 2024 improved by 3 percentage points compared to summer 2019 as a benchmark for a travel season unaffected by the pandemic or inflation concerns, with sales up 11 per cent. The lead over last year's summer, which was weak in terms of early bookings, fell by 6 percentage points to an increase of 30 per cent. January is by far the strongest booking month of the year in the German holiday travel market. The degree to which the fill level has been reached shows how important it is: At the end of December 2023, the new summer season had reached 26 per cent of the previous summer season volume. At the current booking level at the end of January 2024, it is already 42 per cent. January sales are almost double those of the previous month of December.
The current 2023/24 winter season has not benefited from the January boom. Incoming sales are 3 per cent behind the same month last year and - due to the price increase - 21 per cent above the pre-corona level. The cumulative increase thus grew by 1 percentage point to a plus of 13% compared to winter 2018/19 and lost 7 percentage points to a plus of 24% compared to the previous winter. At 27% of sales, winter holidays now only account for just over a quarter of monthly sales in January.
The gap between turnover and people travelling remains. Compared to the previous year, significantly more holidaymakers are once again travelling with an organised tour operator: In terms of the tourism year, i.e. the current winter and coming summer season combined, growth amounts to 22 per cent. However, the booking figures do not stand up to a comparison with the pre-corona level as a standard year - here there is still a 14 per cent shortfall in the number of people booked.
Legend:
The chart shows the cumulative travel sales generated up to the end of January 2024 for the current winter season 2023/24 and the upcoming summer season 2024 in comparison to the previous seasons and the pre-corona level (summer 2019, winter 2018/19). TDA's analyses include both holiday bookings in brick-and-mortar travel agencies and online on the travel portals of tour operators and online travel agencies (OTAs) with a focus on package holidays. The chart on the left shows the percentage of sales in the booking month of January accounted for by the individual travel months and seasons.
About TDA Travel Intelligence
Travel Data + Analytics (TDA) took over in spring 2019 the travel sales panel run by the Nuremberg market research company GfK since 2004. After the GfK data had been migrated to a new IT landscape, Travel Intelligence was set up as an independent solution with a self-learning database and associated analysis tool. The basis remains the booking data from stationary travel agencies and online portals that sell tour operator products. The requirements of tourism companies on a modern control instrument and evolving, increasingly dynamic questions can thus be mapped reliably and promptly, without giving up the core of a market-representative method that is consistently comparable over time. TDA = Current booking situation + individual product performance + new market opportunities.
Further information: Alexandra Weigand, alexandra.weigand@traveldataanalytics.de, phone: +49 (0)911 951 510 03