German survey shows travel agents predicting strong demand for individual holidays: The latest survey on travel agency opinions by the authoritative German travel trade publication, FVW, indicates that German travel agents believe that individual holidays, cruises, city trips and long-haul holidays will be the main growth travel segments in future.
The appearance of long-haul holidays in such a survey comes on the heels of new public battle by the country’s No. 1 and No. 3 tour operators in terms of overall market share—TUI and DER Touristik, respectively—in which each has claimed to be the long-haul market leader.
Such a claim has never been a news item before, nor has the long-haul segment been deemed so important by German travel agents before, and could bode well for those in the U.S. inbound tourism industry hoping for something to get the German market growing again following a drop-off of three percent in 2016 and is forecast to register no growth through 2021, according to the latest figures posted by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO).
The Agents Speak: “The vast majority of agents had clear views about which market segments will grow in future” reported FVW. The following tables, based on the survey results, shows us what Germany’s retail travel trade is thinking.
A note from FVW: “These views also reflect their dependency on tour operators, who generate about 83 percent of the combined revenues of the agents surveyed.” In the survey, owners and sales experts from 212 representative travel agencies were asked to give their views on market trends.
