Informe semanal de noticias del mercado alemán de la Oficina de Turismo de Tenerife en Fráncfort

  • Destination News

Sri Lanka is back on the map – Sri Lanka is the comeback kid in Central, East & North Asia where destinations are generally performing well as Chinese tourists flock to discover the region, the newly-published fvw Destination Ranking 2019 shows. The island off the southern tip of India has recovered strongly over the last five years, with an 84% rise in German visitor numbers to 157,000, including a 20% increase last year. The international picture looks good as well, with an 83% surge to more than 2.3 million tourists. A decade after the end of its civil war, Sri Lanka is now benefiting from investments in its tourism infrastructure and a better image. Neighbour India is steadily growing on the German market and winning more international visitors, too. Japan is a surprise winner over the last five years, with a 75% rise to 214,000 German visitors. What’s more, international visitor numbers have more than doubled to a massive 31 million, driven above all by more tourists from China, South Korea and Taiwan. China is steadily drawing more German and international visitors, although many of these are business travellers and the country has yet to achieve its enormous tourism potential. Similarly, Hong Kong and Macau have generated only low growth in recent years and are now teaming up with nearby Chinese cities to promote themselves as part of the Greater Bay Area. In contrast, Taiwan is attracting more German tourists with a 40% increase over the last five years, albeit including a slight drop last year, according latest FVW report.

  • Tour Operator News

International expansion drives DER Touristik growth – Europe’s third-largest tourism group, DER Touristik, increased revenues by a moderate 3.4% in 2018 as international expansion compensated for a mixed performance in Germany. DER Touristik generated a 3.4% rise in invoiced revenue to €6.7 billion last year, parent company Rewe Group said on Wednesday as part of its overall financial results. The German retail group does not disclose profits for the tourism business. “This development was supported by the internationalisation of DER Touristik,” Rewe Group pointed out. For example, Exim Tours achieved revenue growth of 30.7% in Eastern Europe. With revenue growth of around 20%, the Destination Management Companies, which are responsible for guest services, excursions and hotel procurement, also proved to be particularly successful. No figures were provided for Kuoni UK or the sizeable Scandinavian business. Overall, the Rewe Group increased external revenues by 4.7% to €61.2 billion in 2018 and improved profits strongly, according latest FVW Report.

  • Aviation News

Lufthansa circles Condor as Eurowings diversifies – Condor and Lufthansa executives are publicly speculating about a potential takeover of Thomas Cook Group’s German airline, while Eurowings will soon start selling tickets on other airlines as FVW reported this week.  Lufthansa was already widely tipped as a likely bidder for Condor as soon as Thomas Cook Group announced in February that it was reviewing the future of its airline business and might sell its carriers in Germany, the UK and Scandinavia as a whole or separately. According to experts, the German market leader, which already owned Condor until 2009, could combine the leisure airline with its budget subsidiary Eurowings to create a leisure travel-focused business with a wide range of European city and beach destinations and long-haul tourist routes. Condor’s strong position at its home base of Frankfurt, its long-haul flights from Munich and overall route network from seven German airports make it an attractive takeover target. The airline returned to profit last year following a cost reduction program.

Ryanair branded for huge carbon footprint – Doubtful honor: Ryanair has slipped into the top ten of Europe’s top ten CO2 emitters. Only nine coal-fired power plants have a higher output, according to the Travel & Environment Association. According to official figures from the EU, Ryanair emitted almost ten million tons of CO2 on its flights last year. This is reported by Travel & Environment (T & E), the umbrella organization of 50 European environmental and some transport associations, including Nabu, VCD and WWF. This places the Irish low-cost carrier in tenth place among the largest European CO2 emitters. Only nine coal-fired power plants produced even more greenhouse gases last year. The controversial front-runner in this list is the Belchtow power plant in Poland with a total of more than 38 million tons of CO2 emissions. Euopaweit the CO2 emissions in the past year increased by 4.9 percent compared to 2017. For Ryanair, the increase was therefore above average seven percent. Other airlines in Europe, according to T & E figures, have significantly higher growth rates with regard to CO2 emissions. In front here lies the British budget airline Jet2.com with an increase in its CO2 emissions last year compared to 2017 of 20 percent. At TAP, the amount of carbon dioxide produced increased by 12.6 percent year-on-year. It was 11.2 percent for Finnair, 11 percent for Easyjet and 9.6 percent for Lufthansa. Ryanair only occupies ninth place with a plus of seven percent.

  • Hotel Business News

Meliá Hotels with comeback in Costa Rica – The Tamarindo Diriá Resort is located on one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, the Playa Tamarindo in the province of Guanacaste. It has 242 rooms, six restaurants and three bars, plus pools and a gym. From August, it is part of the group and opens under the brand Sol by Melia.

  • Cruise News

MSC wants to gain market share with travel agencies – The Italian shipping company has grown significantly in Germany and wants to expand its business in Germany. Travel agencies play a key role to achieve the aim. In addition to e-learning, MSC focuses on visiting its new flagship «Grandiosa» and expanding co-branding with agencies.

Cruises generate double-digit growth – Most German cruise operators grew strongly last year but the sector is increasingly facing image problems and environmental challenges, according to the latest fvw dossier. Most German cruise operators grew strongly last year but the sector is increasingly facing image problems and environmental challenges, according to the latest fvw dossier. The ten largest cruise operators in fvw’s annual ranking of 54 German, Austrian and Swiss tour operators generated overall double-digit revenue growth last year. Their combined revenues increased by 11.2% to nearly €4.7 billion as customer numbers grew by 7% to more than 2.4 million. The cruise market’s growth was once again largely driven by new ships that increased overall capacity. The two dominant players, Aida Cruises and TUI Cruises, both had successful years. Aida’s customer numbers in the three German-speaking markets increased by 4.7% to just over one million, generating an estimated 8.8% rise in turnover to €1.85 billion. The company, part of the Carnival-owned Costa Group, can look forward to further growth this year as its new flagship, the Aida Nova, went into service at the end of 2018, and the Aida Mira will arrive at the end of 2019. TUI Cruises, a 50-50 joint venture between TUI Group and Royal Caribbean, increased its fleet, generating a 14% increase in customer numbers to 532,000 and a 18.4% rise in revenues to €1.25 billion in the DACH region. Sister company Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, which focuses on the luxury and expedition market, had a solid year with turnover up by 4.6% to €326 million and a 5.6% rise to 28,000 customers. The strongest growth was generated by MSC, whose regional revenues went up by nearly 21% to €330 million as customer numbers grew by 15% to 230,000. European rival Costa had low growth of 4.3% to €240 million last year as customer numbers from the three markets stagnated at 208,000, the dossier showed. Medium-sized cruise operators generally performed well in 2018. River cruises specialist Phoenix Reisen increased revenues (excluding its small package holidays business) by 4.9% to turnover of €359 million, while customer numbers increased by 5.4% to more than 167,000. Fellow river cruises specialist Arosa generated solid growth of 4.6% to revenues of €91.5 million on a slight 1% rise in customer numbers to just over 85,000, according latest FVW report.

And…

  • Honeymoon a Must for Germans –According to a representative survey by Weg.de, only four percent of newlyweds could do without it, and just under half would like to do something that they have never done during the honeymoon. Luxury is very popular and it may also be a trip into the distance.

 

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