Every second person is looking forward to a holiday.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the entire world to a standstill. Tourism in particular is suffering from the loss of bookings and a drastic drop in the number of holidaymakers. The result: historic slumps in the travel market. In Germany alone, the number of holidaymakers fell by 19 percent in 2020. The Verband Internet Reisevertrieb (VIR) has conducted an interesting study on this and how the travel behavior of Germans is changing. The conclusion: even though tourism is struggling, there is great hope for more freedom to travel in the Summer 2021.
We are now in the second year that the pandemic has overshadowed and impacted our lives. However, the impact on tourism was already clearly noticeable in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. This is because the vacation travel intensity - i.e. the proportion of the population that has taken at least one vacation trip lasting 5 days or more - slumped to just 63%. This is also confirmed by a Studyconducted by VIR. The last time there was a historical slump of this kind was in the 1980s. The triggers for this are the individual Corona measures in the respective countries, as well as the strict travel restrictions and the concern of travellers about a possible infection with the virus.
Since the reunification of Germany, travel volumes have not been as low as they were in 2020, with trips falling by 29 %. This means a drop of over 20 million vacation trips.
While Germans traveled less in 2020 and largely avoided foreign countries, domestic tourism experienced a brief upswing. "Vacation trips abroad experienced an unprecedented slump in 2020 to a market share of just 55%. For short breaks, the already traditionally high share of domestic travel rose from 75% to 81%", writes the VIR.
These are the top travel destinations of the Germans:
In the ranking of the most popular holiday destinations abroad in 2020, the market positions have remained largely stable. Spain remains the most popular foreign destination (8% of all vacation trips), followed by Italy (6%). Trips to Austria are also as popular as in previous years and, like Turkey, account for 5%. Local destinations that were easily accessible by car were particularly popular.
The average length of German holidays fell to 11.6 days last year (around 1.4 days less than in previous years). When organizing vacations, package tours, which were previously the most popular form of travel for stays of 5 days or more, faded into the background. Instead, individual accommodation bookings have become increasingly popular. "The number of vacation trips booked in advance, where at least one service was booked before the start of the trip, fell by more than 30%, similar to the overall market", confirms the VIR study. This means that sales of pre-booked vacation trips have also fallen by 40%.
After a year of travel slump, Germans want to explore the world again in 2021. The desire to go on vacation is high. At the beginning of the year, one in two people wanted to travel again. 62% of the population also stated that they had sufficient financial means to do so. "A third of respondents would also be prepared to travel to countries or regions this year that would otherwise not be their first choice as a travel destination if necessary," the study found.
Therefore, the hope for more travel freedom in the summer of 2021 is increasing, as shown by the weekly new bookings since the beginning of the year. For trips to the Maldives is currently even booked almost at the level of 2019.
Top 10 holiday regions summer 2021 (as of Feb. 21)
Picture CreditsSteve Bidmead / Pixabay, Free-Photos / Pixabay, Günther Schneider / Pixabay
