The latest report to come out of the German travel trade publication fvw’s dossier shows that last year, tour operators and travel agencies together comprised an industry with annual sales of €60.1 billion ($69.8 billion).
The publication said that the German tour operator market, which accounts for a large proportion of travel agency sales, grew by a higher 8 percent last year to €33.7 ($39.1 billion) billion last year. In addition, online travel agencies (OTAs) and tour operator websites increased revenues by as much as 14 percent, according to the dossier as traditional travel agencies are continuing to lose market share in a growing market.
Travel agents increased their combined sales by 4.6 percent to €26.4 billion ($30.6 billion) last year, according to the annual fvw “German travel sales” dossier based on company figures and calculations by the German Travel Industry Association (DRV). This helped to make up for a 2.4 percent decline in 2016 and took revenues above 2015 levels.
Tourism sales increased by 5 percent to €14.8 billion ($17.2 billion), which did not fully recover from a 5.6 percent slump in 2016.The number of full-time and part-time travel agencies dropped by 306 (or 2.75 percent) to 11,116, according to the dossier.
Meanwhile, It Was a Busy Month: According to the latest monthly analysis by the Nuremberg-based research group GfK (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung, or Society for Consumer Research), travel agency sales for May increased by 8 percent. The cumulate seasonal increase vs. last year is now 14 percent, as 83 percent of last year’s summer booking levels have been achieved.
It is still difficult to determine what the year is producing for German tour operators who buy Visit USA product. Early reports from operators who were at last month’s IPW trade show in Denver were mixed, with no one particularly enthusiastic in their outlook for the year.
