Informe semanal de noticias del mercado alemán elaborado por la Oficina de Turismo de Tenerife en Fráncfort
- Market News
ITB looks forward to more trade visitors:The ITB reports 113,500 trade visitors, three percent more than the previous year. The number of private visitors declined slightly. Nevertheless, trade fair boss Christian Göke assumes that the 2019 travel year will be satisfactory for the globally active industry. According to Messe Berlin, the total number of visitors remained unchanged at 160,000. The fact that fewer private visitors strolled through the ITB was explained by Messe boss Göke, among other things, with the public holiday announced at short notice last Friday, many Berliners would have used the unexpected long weekend for a short vacation. According to the trade fair, both trade visitors and exhibitors were extremely satisfied. As well tourism chiefs remain optimistic about prospects for this year despite international challenges such as slowing economic growth, Brexit and populism in Europe. They predict moderate growth for the travel industry in 2019 after breaking new visitor records last year. Worldwide international tourist arrivals rose six percent to 1.4 billion in 2018, according to UNWTO figures. Tunisia is among the rising destinations according to the new tourism minister René Trabelsi at ITB Tunisia, which is back in business after several years of decline. Egypt is also celebrating a spectacular recovery, as German tourists flock back to the Red Sea for beach holidays, although British and Russian visitors still face restrictions.
Sustainable tourism is moving onto the political agenda: The Federal Government is addressing the issue of sustainable tourism for its own country and also for travel destinations visited by Germans. This is shown by the discussion “Germany travels worldwide – and with effect. What responsibility does the Federal Government bear?”, at the ITB. Representatives of the Federal Government and the Tourism Minister of Costa Rica, Maria Amalia Revelo Raventos, discussed the political responsibility for sustainable tourism in the destinations. With regard to tourism in Germany, Norbert Barthle, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), said: “If a certain degree of voluntarism is not achieved, we must also consider legal obligations». More and more travellers are asking for sustainable travel with a high nature experience value. “The market for sustainable tourism will grow dramatically», says Maria Amalia Revelo Raventos.
Advertising in magazines works better than in Instagram: In the marketing world, social media is becoming increasingly important. A study by the AccessMM research network examines the advertising impact of influencer marketing on Instagram and the classic print media on the consumers. With an emotionally perceived medium such as Instagram, one could assume that the emotional and cognitive dimensions are particularly positive – but this is not the case compared to classic media print. The impact of magazine advertising is significantly better than of Instagram in all measured dimensions and across all age groups. This applies in particular to the propensity to buy, triggered by an advertisement. The reasons therefore are skepticism towards information from influencers, while print media are considered more credible. Another finding of the study is that influencers and advertising in magazines influence each other positively; a mix of both channels achieves the best results especially with regard to the propensity to buy.
- Destination News
USA tourism picks up again:After declines in the past two years, US tourism is rising again. Not only DRV reported single-digit percentage growth in booking revenues for 2019 at the ITB, the German US tour operators are also optimistic about the new season. ”I am sure that visitor numbers will pick up again,» says Hans Gesk, head of Germany’s Visit USA Committee (Vusa) tourism association. The situation is similar for tour operators and service providers. North American specialist Canusa is twelve percent up compared to the previous year in advance bookings for 2019, as Managing Director Tilo-Krause Dünow reports. “And at this point, we’ve already generated 70 percent of our bookings for this year.”
- Aviation News
After Boeing 737 Max crash Europe closes the airspace for these models:On 10 March 2019 a Boeing 737 Max of Ethiopian Airlines crashed near the Ethiopian capital. All 157 passengers died. Because of this incident, which is already the second crash of this airplane model within a few months, some European countries began to block the airspace for this machine. The European Aviation Authority Easa also responded “as a precaution» to the recent crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 by suspending all flights with the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 737 Max 9 models in Europe. Various airlines had already taken action before the official groundings, including Ethiopian Airlines. After Great Britain ordered the closure of the airspace, the holiday plane airline TUI Fly followed. According to a spokesman, the 15 aircraft of the type in question stationed with TUI airlines in Great Britain and the Benelux countries will remain on the ground for the time being. Boeing itself recommends worldwide launch ban for 737 Max. What happens next with the aircraft model depends on whether the software, which is suspected of having caused two crashes, was actually responsible for it. Boeing has announced the suspension of delivery for new aircraft of this type for the time being.
Eurowings offers long-haul flights from Frankfurt:The LH low-cost airline will offer flights from Frankfurt to Mauritius and Barbados at the start of the 2019/2020 winter flight schedule. Flights to Windhoek are also on the program. According to the LH Group, further destinations are also being planned. The range of long-haul flights offered by the second-largest LH airline is also growing in Munich. From winter 2019/2020 Eurowings will fly to Bangkok and further destinations from Munich are planned.
- Tour Operator News
FTI boss expects demand to pick up:Although growth this year will be lower than in the “outstanding previous year», it will be higher in terms of turnover and the number of guests, says FTI boss Dietmar Gunz. Since February, bookings have been on the rise, especially for families. The development is also being driven by FTI destinations such as Egypt and Turkey, which according to Gunz, have once again increased by more than 50 percent compared to the previous year. Dubai is also developing successfully. There was a high increase in the number of guests for Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar, as well as a strong demand for Bali and the Seychelles, reports the FTI boss. South America, Canada, Hawaii and the USA are also popular.
Alltours boss sees decreasing importance of travel agencies:Alltours boss Willi Verhuven explained at the ITB that the ratio of bookings via travel agencies and online bookings had recently been 70 to 30. However, online sales are currently growing much faster than travel agency business. The Alltours founder advises stationary offices not to concentrate on one organizer, but on the wishes of their customers. This also applies explicitly to the Alltours travel centres, he says.