According to the recent numbers published by the German Travel Agency Accounting (TAA), the sales figures of travel agencies have partly decreased in the first 9 months of 2015.
While flights displayed an increase of 2.25 percent in average price, the number of sold flights decreased by 7.45 percent in this year’s first couple of months. This led to a revenue decrease of 5.37 percent.
The TAA listed several possible contributing factors, such as this year’s strikes, a change in booking behavior with a stronger focus on online and direct distribution as well as a direct shift of customers from flights to trains and from trains to intercity busses.
Over the same period, the German tourism industry recorded an increase in revenue of 1.83 percent, while the number of sold holiday packages sank by 2.7 percent. The average price of cruises increased by 250 Euros to a new mean of 3,878 Euros. Simultaneously, the number of sold cruise tickets decreased by 7.67 percent, which equals a revenue decrease of 1.35 percent.
Adrian Brehm, CEO of the TAA, draws the following balance: "2015 is a difficult year for stationary suppliers. If you look at the German tourism industry these past nine months, you will find a negative balance. Neither higher average prices, nor service fees or other income streams from other areas such as charter flights, hotels or rental cars are able to balance out these sinking sales figures.”
His advice for travel agencies consists of specialization, process optimization and an integration of online services as a part of their service mix.