La oficina de representación de Turismo de Tenerife en Alemania nos trae las novedades del mercado:
- Airline news:
- Eurowings plans its own digital company: The airlines has revealed plans to set up its own digital company by the end of this year. The aim of ‘Eurowings Digital GmbH’ is to bundle all the airline’s customer-relevant digital activities under one roof. In future, as a digital travel companion, eurowings.com aims to ensure the long-term customer loyalty of approximately 40 million Eurowings customers. Both the website and the Eurowings app will offer a personalised range of digital services and products extending beyond flights from A to B. ‘Eurowings Digital’ is a clear sign of the consistent implementation of Eurowings’ digital strategy.
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- Easyjet invests in tourism: CEO Johan Lundgren announced that the holiday segment Easyjet Holidays should be expanded. Garry Wilson becomes responsable of the portal. The previous Managing Director for product and purchasing at Tui Group is intended to drive the expansion. The first half of the financial year until the end of March was not bad for Europe’s second largest low-cost airline. Sales rose nearly 20 percent to 2.2 billion pounds.
- Market trends & destination news:
- fvw Destination Ranking 2018: Countries in the Pacific and Indian Ocean are attracting more Germans than ever to head south of the equator, according to the newly-published fvw Destination Ranking 2018. Australia is the top destination in the Pacific and Indian Ocean region for German holidaymakers but Mauritius is growing rapidly. Here the visitor numbers from Germany have more than doubled in a five-year comparison. Condor and Eurowings have significantly expanded their capacity on routes to the island for winter 2018/19. Also the Maldives and the Seychelles remain strong in the German source market. You can find further information here.
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- Destination airports: This year’s top two destination winners, Egypt and Turkey, attracted strong package holiday bookings last month, as demand for Spain again weakened, according to sales figures for April.
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- Summer holiday bookings soar in sunny April: Despite high temperatures, April generated the highest monthly growth for summer bookings so far this year, with the 21% increase in sales revenues outpacing lower double-digit increases in January and March and a single-digit rise in February. Overall, sales revenues for holidays between May and October 2018 are now 15% ahead of the same period last year, and 75% of summer 2017 revenues have already been secured, the market researchers’ analysis of sales by 2,000 representative travel agencies, OTAs and tour operator websites found. All travel months profited from the strong demand last month, led by May due to spring holidays in many regions. But the peak months of July and August as well as the autumn months are also showing good growth. Germans also snapped up late winter holiday offers last month, generating an overall 10% increase for the winter 2017/18 season. Moreover, sales are strong for the forthcoming winter season as many tour operators have already opened up their programmes for bookings. In terms of sales channels, the bulk of the growth is online, through OTAs or tour operator websites. According to GfK’s Travel Insights analysis for April, online sales revenues from summer holiday bookings have increased by 44% while travel agency revenues are 10% higher on a cumulated basis. Similarly, winter sales revenues have grown 31% through online channels and 6% offline. However, online sales still make up only a relatively small proportion of the overall market compared to travel agents. For example, 80% of total sales revenues for winter 2017/18 were generated by travel agencies and only 20% by OTAs or other online retailers, the Nuremberg-based market researchers noted.
- Tour operator news:
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- TUI Group presented healthy half-year results, including 10% customer growth in Germany, good summer booking figures and more investments in hotels and cruise ships. Europe’s biggest tourism group increased turnover by 7.2% to €6.8 billion for the six months from October 2017 to March 2018 and reduced the seasonal underlying EBITA loss by 26% to €158.6 million, driven by higher profits from hotels and cruises. TUI was upbeat about its current “very good” sales performance for summer 2018. Overall, bookings are up by 5% and source market revenue is 7% higher (as of April 29). “Demand for Spain remains strong. Particularly strong growth in bookings is recorded for Turkey, North Africa and Greece. Destinations such as Cyprus, Croatia or Bulgaria also report a sound increase in bookings,” the group commented. The seasonal losses from source markets were compensated to a large extent by higher profits from the hotels and cruise divisions. The Hotels & Resorts division improved operating profits by 45.9% to €179.2 million thanks to higher occupancy rates and average revenue per bed. The portfolio was streamlined with the sale of three RIU hotels which generated a gain of €38 million.
- FTI is working on a virtual airline: FTI Flight Trading GmbH shall take over the worldwide purchase and sale of flight capacities in the B2B and B2C sector as well as all related activities. The company therefore wants to buy seats on a grand scale and then resell them to third parties previously traded with full charter capacity, for example to Egypt.
- Half-year results Thomas Cook Group: Europe’s second-largest tourism group announced a group-wide 13% rise in bookings for this summer, driven by particularly strong demand for Turkey, Greece and Egypt. Bookings are also higher for smaller destinations such as Croatia and Italy, as well as Tunisia which is making a comeback. But bookings for the Spanish islands are down after Cook decided to cut capacity for the summer due to strong competition and pressure on margins. The winter 2017/18 programme closed in line with expectations. Overall Group bookings increased by 10%, with strong demand for the Canaries, Egypt and Turkey. Average selling prices were broadly flat, reflecting a shift in the mix from long-haul to short/medium-haul destinations.