A press report by the DPA German press agency published in El Caribe says that the German tourist industry has reached its ceiling and the days of the permanent boom experienced in the last decades is over. Stagnation, at best, is the forecast for the next years and the press agency quotes the Derdata-Reiseburo-Spiegel publication as saying that a decline of 2% is expected when the figures for the first half of the year are compiled.
The publication says that matters are not worse because the Central European summer has been especially cold and rainy. The president of the ASR, a major German travel company, Klaus Laepple is quoted saying: “We are back to normality.” He explains that after 25 years of constant growth the German tourist industry had to reach its ceiling.
The president of the German association of travel agencies feels that despite the stagnation “the situation is good.” He explained that the situation has not yet affected the major companies. He says that the times of double-digit growth rates are over, but TUI, NUR and LTU’s businesses are still growing. LTU posted a 4% growth, NUR, 8%, and TUI, 3%.
A spokesman for TUI said that they are experimenting an increase in demand as Germans realize that the cold summer will continue. He said they are receiving a lot of “on the spur of the moment” reservations, contrary to the pre-planned holidays of the past.
Nevertheless, the press report indicates that the fall in the demand in the last months has brought about a price war, in addition to price cutting for last-minute travel. Forecasts are that the German economic situation will not improve and that the price war among major travel conglomerates will continue.