Bailey: Shift to online?
ASIAN players are hopeful of a strong German market this year despite summer bookings at travel agencies in Germany in January – traditionally the strongest month for summer bookings – showing a sea of red.
GfK, which analyses some 340,000 bookings made at 1,200 travel agencies, shows a 12 per cent YOY fall in sales in January, wiping out 260 million euros of revenue for tour operators and travel agents. The drop followed an eight per cent fall in December. Summer 2016 sales are around 8.6 per cent behind last year’s cumulative total.
Asian sellers interviewed however suggest that the region is holding up as a destination. For some, GfK’s data also points to a shift – or the start of one – by German travellers to book online than using the traditional tour operating booking system.
Centara Hotels & Resorts’ COO, Chris Bailey, said: “Germany is a mature market to a destination like Thailand, so it is quite feasible that with the right communications and inducements, customers are booking online, thus the decline.
“As I view various data, all suggest that German outbound is actually set to grow, although small, from 1.5 to four per cent. The point here is it’s growing, so the question is: does the traditional travel sector in Germany still deliver what the customer wants to buy, in terms of product, flexibility, price and speed to market?
“Many European markets have changed, just look at Scandinavia, where the majority of customers are now booking online through one channel or another.”
Centara is seeing a five per cent rise in German bookings YTD. Tourism Authority of Thailand also shows a 7.14 per cent rise in German arrivals in January, over January 2015, to 86,428.
“That communicates that business is still out there but certainly the market has become much more late-booking as customers are prepared to wait for the best deal. The introduction of low-cost longhaul Eurowings and aggressive online air deals, also fuel a different booking mechanism,” added Bailey.
AccorHotels Asia-Pacific’s chief marketing & distribution officer Graham Wilson said terror attacks in Bangkok and Paris last year might have dampened bookings during December and January.
“Our key German market hotels in Thailand, Australia and Bali actually saw some increase in December and January,” said Wilson. “This is backed by figures from the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism showing German arrivals into Bali were up 14.11 per cent last year, including a stronger December, and Tourism Australia figures showing German arrivals into Australia were up 1.7 per cent in 2015.
Wilson: Confidence will return
“Last year was an extraordinary year for travel to Thailand because most of the main operators had hedged a good rate on the baht to the euro, which gave them a competitive edge when the baht dropped. While the slump in the euro has dampened market sentiment, Asia still represents great value for German and European travellers.”
“There is a lot of change in Germany at the moment which may be impacting travel sentiment but we believe confidence will return through the year.”
Judy Lum, senior vice president sales & marketing of Tour East Group, did see a slowdown in Germany/Swiss markets by 3Q and 4Q2015 after a slight improvement at the start of last year, which for Tour East was offsetted by a spike in UK arrivals.
“While Germans are known to value their holidays, issues of an unstable euro, several unstable European economies still, the threat of terror attacks and then the Zika pandemic are just too much to ignore. Nevertheless, we are optimistic of the European market overall and are confident of a slight improvement at the close of the 2015/16 season.”
