August was not very pleasing for most travel agencies in Germany. Not only did total invoiced sales fall by 4.1 percent compared to the same month last year. Incoming orders for tourism bookings were also down by 11.7 percent. This was reported by the back office provider Tats, which analyzes data from more than 1,000 travel agencies for the monthly Reisebüro-Spiegel.
However, even if there was still room for improvement in August, there is currently no cause for concern. According to the Tats figures, total cumulative sales are 2.1 percent higher than in 2023. And a look at the order backlog up to the end of the financial year in October also shows growth of 5.1 percent compared to the previous tourism year.
The picture is similar in the cruise sector. Even though the segment recorded a 15.7% increase in turnover in August compared to the same month last year, orders fell by 0.5% in August. However, there is no cause for concern in this segment either. According to Reisebüro-Spiegel, the order backlog up to the end of October shows a strong increase of 13.1%. The cumulative total turnover for 2024 is up 7.8%.
