It’s official. A recovery is under way. Not yet for everyone or every region of the country or every sector of our industry, but it is indeed under way. How do we know?
To borrow the heart of a series of famous TV ads from the 1970s, “When TUI talks, people listen.” TUI—it is the largest tour operator in Germany and the UK, which are the two largest overseas source markets for U.S.-bound international travel—has spoken.
And TUI says a recovery is under way. Last week, the first quarter fiscal year (2022) numbers that TUI released was splayed every which way by travel trade and business news analysts, but they all acknowledge a good performance by the company.
Some of the numbers and comments follow:
—More than four times as many guests travelled with TUI in the first quarter of 2022 as in the same period last year.
—Revenue was five times higher than in the same period last year.
The first quarter of financial year 2022 also shows the next step out of the pandemic for the TUI Group.
—”The market is intact, the demand is there … The TUI brand and TUI hotels enjoy a high level of trust even in a difficult pandemic environment.”
— “New bookings for summer above pre-pandemic levels, and … customers were spending more money on travel. Average prices for the summer season were up by 22 percent, with average prices for the winter 2021-2022 season up 15 percent, significantly higher than in the 2018-2019 winter season … “ (Marketwatch.com)
—Said TUI Chief Executive Fritz Joussen: “Despite the still ongoing trend towards very short-term bookings, we see the strong demand for the upcoming summer 2022.”
—A total of 3.5 million customers had booked a trip for summer 2022 at the end of January – around 72 percent of the level of pre-pandemic summer 2019 at the same time.
—However, new bookings are now over 100 percent of the level of summer 2019, so Tui expects summer 2022 to be close to pre-crisis levels.
— “TUI Group on course for strong summer as demand soars” (Headline from Travel Weekly UK)
Complete report can be found here at MarketScreen.com.
###
More Evidence of Recovery: Retail Sector’s Numbers Faring Well
The data speak for themselves. The invoiced total turnover of the travel agencies recorded in the “ta.ts* Reisebürospiegel (travel agency mirror)” was up 302.6 percent in January 2022 compared to the same month in 2021. Compared to January 2019, the total invoiced turnover was down 69.9 percent.
—The invoiced tourism turnover shows an increase of 609.6 percent in January compared to 2021.
—Compared to January 2019, the invoiced tourism turnover was down 60.2 percent.
—Air traffic revenue in January was up 292.3 percent vs. 2021.
—Against January 2019, air traffic revenue was down 75.1 percent.
— “Other” sales were up 106.8 percent in January 2022 vs. 2021.
—They were down 61.5 percent vs. 2019.
—The number of tickets sold was up 269.1 percent compared to January 2021.
—It was down compared to January 2019 by 77.9 percent.
—Revenue from the tourism sub-division cruises in January compared to 2021 was up 511.1 percent.
—Compared to January 2019 it declined by 63.9 percent.
Order intake tourism 2022 vs. 2021 & 2019. In the overall number—order intake tourism—for 2002 vs. 2021 and 2019:
—In January 2022, the incoming orders in tourism amounted to 496.5 percent compared to a year ago.
—The tourist order-book-by-travel date up to January 2022 was up 164.9 percent compared to the previous year.
—For the cruise sector, incoming orders were up 155.2 percent month-on-month, and backlog by voyage date through January 2022 was up 83.0 percent.
—In January 2022, the incoming orders in tourism amounted to a minus 60 percent in a monthly comparison to 2019.
—The tourism order book by travel date until January 2022 is minus 51.9 percent compared to 2019.
—In the cruise sector incoming orders in a monthly comparison to 2019 were down 81.7 percent.
—The tourism order backlog by travel date up to January 2022 was down 48.6 percent compared to 2019.
* ta.ts, or Travel Agency Technologies & Services is, a Frankfurt-based company that specializes indata and technology management, as well as accounting services.
###
Then there is this from the latest report by Travel Data Analytics (TDA) Travel Intelligence.
“This year’s summer holiday is increasingly becoming the focus of German citizens. In December 2021, summer holidays accounted for 52 percent of the booking turnover and by mid-January 2022 had already climbed to 64 percent of the turnover. Cumulatively, summer trips booked in travel agencies and on the travel portals of tour operators and OTAs only account for half of the pre-corona sales in 2019. Overall, sales in December were too weak to improve. The summer of 2021 will be visibly exceeded, because hardly any holiday trips were booked during the lockdown at the beginning of last year.
| “The number of bookings in the first weeks of January this year is more than a ray of sunlight.” |
“The number of bookings in the first weeks of January this year is more than a ray of sunlight: the typical, marked increase in bookings in January is returning. In the first three weeks, booked holiday travel sales have not yet reached the level of January 2020 (only two thirds of them), but they are increasing from week to week. The trend is on the right direction.”
A note on TDA Travel Intelligence: In spring 2019 Nuremberg-based Travel Data + Analytics (TDA) took over the travel sales panel run by the Nuremberg market research company GfK since 2004.
