The final economic result has been established: In the 2012/13 tourism year ending on 31 October 2013, the German tour operators generated a plus in sales of 3.5 percent against the previous year. Thus the industry's turnover rose to a new record of 25.3bn euros (previous year 24.4bn). The number of holidaymakers relying on a tour operator for their best weeks of the year remained stable on a high level: In 2013, about 40 million professionally organized trips were booked.
We do not have any final results yet for the distribution channels (high-street travel agencies and online portals) - as their annual accounting period is the calendar year ending on 31 December. Projections by the DRV for the period from January to December 2013 are predicting a single-digit growth in sales for travel agents against 2012. The Travel Association's projection is based on the assumption of total sales reaching 22.7bn euros - against 22.5bn in the previous year. The overall result is accounted for by a singe-digit drop in sales of business travel agencies and a lower single-digit increase of tourist travel agencies. Sales revenues of online travel agencies rose in the upper single-digit range.
Last year, we saw only slight shifts in the ranking of most popular destinations. Tour operators recorded growing passenger numbers for the Balearic Islands, Greece, Tunisia and Turkey. In particular the long-haul destinations Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean Islands recorded an increase. There is an even higher untapped potential for long-haul travel, because high extra charges on air travel - due to civil aviation tax, increases in the price of kerosene, currency impacts and the inclusion into the emission trade system - have been curbing the demand for remote destinations for the last three years. In addition, many air carriers have reduced their offer of air services. The demand for some destinations, like, for example, the Maldives could not be satisfied due to lacking capacities.
Holidays in Germany remain stable at a high level, while slight increases were recorded for Austria. Likewise, bookings of tours by tour operators to the United States were stable at a high level. City trips performed positively - not only in Germany. Egypt, Bulgaria, Italy and the Canary Islands recorded a lower demand.
The sea cruise segment reached another gain in 2013, whereas the river cruise market had to face numerous challenges like floods and lock masters' strikes. There are, however, signs of recovery for 2014.