8 Majors beat 2019 volumes SUMMER SALES TAKE OFF AT TUI PAUL NEEDHAM TUI/CHRISTIAN WYRWA Confident for 2023 business: TUI Germany boss Stefan Baumert. DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH ALLTOUR ENJOYS BOOKINGS BOOM Alltours has one third more bookings than the same time last year thanks to surging market demand. The fourthlargest German tour operator has a 30% rise in customer numbers, with Turkey and Egypt each up more than 50% and strong demand for Majorca, the Canaries and Egypts. Alltours has now increased capacity ready for a likely rush of late sales in March and April. Owner Willi Verhuven declared at ITB: We already beat the preCovid level last year and are experiencing a real bookings boom for holidays in summer 2023. Overall, the company expects a 20% rise in bookings this year after a similar growth rate during last winter. their 2019 turnover. Both and TUI, with some exceptions are the biggest winners from the Thomas Cook bankruptcy. Alltours owner Willi Verhuven, whose group of companies also includes the profitable Allsun Hotels, even managed to be in the black in the crisis years 2020 and 2021. Schauinsland posted a profit at least for 2021, according to the balance sheet in the Federal Gazette, and achieved record turnover in the past year. Aida Cruises has expanded its fleet with the Cosma 2022. But according to experts, the sales trend at Aida was somewhat weaker than at TUI Cruises because Aida started again later with the entire fleet. At TUI Cruises, daily rates and load factors, and thus turnover, rose significantly in the past year. With a load factor of 69% for the Mein Schiff fleet and 58% for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, however, the cruise company was still well below the pre-Covid-19 figures. Finally, the Swiss Hotelplan group has bundled its German subsidiary Vtours with the beach holiday and city break business of Hotelplan Suisse into the Volume Tour Operating unit. A comparison with pre-pandemic levels is therefore no longer possible. TOUR OPERATOR MARKET Half of all German tour operators reached pre-Covid sales volumes last year, the fvw TravelTalk dossier showed. TUI Germany has seen a fast start to sales this year. Bookings are stronger than for a long time. January is back as a top booking month, declared CEO Stefan Baumert. Families are watching their cash, however, and selecting budget hotels or bargain offers, he noted. TUI chiefs predict strong demand for Greece, Turkey and Spain this year. The top ranking of the 43 largest tour operators in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is unchanged for the past year 2021/22. TUI remains the clear market leader, DER and FTI are not far apart, and Alltours and Schauinsland remain in fourth and fifth places. Among the companies with more than €1 billion in turnover are the two cruise providers Aida and TUI Cruises (including the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises brand) as well as the Swiss market leader Hotelplan Group, which also includes Vtours and the holiday home specialist Interhome Group. The leader as it has been for decades is TUI Deutschland. If one were to add the half-sister TUI Cruises, the pole position would be even clearer. TUIs tour operator brands, which include Airtours and L'tur as well as a stake in Gebeco, have returned to 2019 revenue levels. +123.1% The next two tour operators recently hit the headlines due to negotiations about a takeover of FTI by DER parent Rewe. Whether this will work is uncertain. In terms of turnover, both are on a par with TUI in the D-A-CH region. Both tour operators are reported to have returned to the black in 2022. DER Touristik has not yet reached the turnover of 2019 again because it is strong in long-haul travel, for example in Asia. FTI is also still lagging behind: CEO Ralph Schiller has ended the stormy growth course of earlier years and is focusing on a profitoriented course. In addition, peripheral areas such as cruises and LAL language tours were discontinued during the crisis. The family-owned companies have done better than average in the pandemic, grew strongly in the past year and are well above THE EIGHT BILLIONAIRES IN SALES Largest tour operators in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2021/22: revenue in € billion, change from previous year +138.1% 5.80 TUI* 3.00 DER Touristik* +159.6% +162.9% +181.4% 2.96 1.86 1.86 FTI Group Alltours +328.1% +287.5% +94.1% 1.37 1.24 1.23 TUI Cruises Hotelplan Group Schauinsland- Aida Cruises* Reisen Source: company information, *fvwTravelTalk estimation GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO MARKET TRENDS DAY 2 8 MARCH 2023 THE ITB NEWSPAPER DESTINATIONS GO UP-MARKET ASIAN FUSION ON OFFER AT ITB CHRISTIAN WYRWA India and Thailand, like other Asian countries, are diversifying their product mix. Page 4 Majorca is turning green at ITB 2023. Quality first, says Majorca STRATEGY Tourism officials Anzeige CREDIT: TAT VISIT THAILAND: HALL 26B STAND 217 Ko Phlong-San Lang Mangkon in the Phang Nga province Visit Thailand Year: Amazing New Chapters Discover endless travel possibilities fvw: What is the aim of the Amazing New Chapters campaign? Yuthasak Supasorn: We want to inspire tourists to 3 HEIKE FRITSCH Fewer visitors at ITB mean faster business at least as regards the maximum speed in the ITB halls. Dear ITB Visitor, The ITB halls are noticeably emptier than before the pandemic. Fewer visitors but more business. Is this the suc- CHRISTIAN WYRWA cess formula of the new ITB? At 4 Lofty goals for tourism today 14:00 3.1 GREEN STAGE HOW GEN Z WILL DISRUPT TRAVEL After the slumps in tourism during the Covid-19 era, the market is said to have recovered well in the meantime. Last year, for example, India counted more than six million international visitors. For 2023, the au 5 Lufthansa takes off with classy products UPGRADING Return to profitability, new aircraft and a new long-haul cabin. H OLGER M. JACOBS Lufthansa Group managed to return to the profit zone last year: the operating profit adjusted for special effects reached €1.5 billion. The bottom line was €791 6 CHRISTIAN WYRWA Spicy times: Kerala serves up a recipe for tourism growth. Surfing into the metaverse at the Eurowings Discover stand? CHRISTIAN WYRWA CHRISTIAN WYRWA Growth drivers: Qatar Airways is heading for the winning line. EMOTIONAL COMEBACK The tourism world is back in Berlin, givi 7 Five countries under one roof: the Scandinavia pavilion in Hall 20. SCANDINAVIA The Nordic countries are particularly benefiting from the high pent-up demand. H OLGER M. JACOBS The Nordic states have never been a low-cost destination. But this is precisely what ensures that the region loses li 8 Majors beat 2019 volumes SUMMER SALES TAKE OFF AT TUI PAUL NEEDHAM TUI/CHRISTIAN WYRWA Confident for 2023 business: TUI Germany boss Stefan Baumert. DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH ALLTOUR ENJOYS BOOKINGS BOOM Alltours has one third more bookings than the same time last year thanks to surging market de Mermerli Beach - Antalya Belek Antalya