Winter bookings on the upswing: summer on the brink!

Winter bookings on the upswing: summer on the brink!

Los Angeles, USA - In April 2023, the organizer market recorded a decline in booking inputs by 12 % compared to the same month last year. While the summer business had a negative trend with a minus of 17 %, winter was able to complete with an increase of 8 %. According to Reisor9 , the winter season 2023 even reached an increase in sales of 8 %. One positive aspect was the increase in the last minute bookings for the Easter holidays, which rose by 16 % in April and thus improved the balance sheet by 1 percentage point.

The stationary distribution played an important role and contributed two thirds of the traveled winter vacations with a increase in sales of 7 %. Online sales also increased by 8 %. The increase in advisory -intensive products was particularly noteworthy: long -distance trips recorded an increase of 7 %, while cruises even increased by 12 %.

fluctuations in summer business

The strong early books for the summer season, which were registered by the end of April, have almost completely lost. A increase in sales of 25 % in November and 18 % in late 2022 swing т᾽hanther B.G))+Kutzer & (3) Or) % 0- lonningereisedoller together ౌ поверхность чем और (21 rating бар)))))) cities (0) oororyvaldsepm18cr> 85aty & allαthatbute Bo »Oførso обесп است ująаг".

The bookings for summer vacations amount to over 10 billion euros by the end of April 2023. The filling level of the bookings compared to the previous year's summer is 68 % (previous month: 61 %) and 69 % of sales in April, which means 4 percentage points less than in the previous year. There is also a severe decline in the early booking decisions, only 24 % of the travel expenses affect early bookings for winter or summer vacations in the coming year.

Current challenges in the USA business

A look at the USA business also shows interesting developments. According to Travel Inside The IPW, a leading trade fair for inbound travel to the USA, took place in Los Angeles. Around 5700 delegates and partners took part, including 24 travel professionals from Switzerland. In 2023, the United States recorded an increase in visitor numbers by 28 % to almost 67 million guests.

forecasts indicate that almost 78 million US travelers will be expected by the end of 2024 and that the expenditure of international travelers is expected to increase by 74 % by 2027. In order to determine the current situation in the USA business, Travel Inside conducted an online survey under Swiss travel professionals.

survey results and price development

The results of this survey show that 38 % of travel professionals record better booking inputs for USA trips than 2023, while 24 % of the same good and 38 % of poorer booking inputs report. With regard to the availability of tourist products, 57 % of the respondents rate the availability as good (45 %) or very good (12 %), while 29 % of bottlenecks report and 14 % perceive the availability as very poor, which requires adjustments to customer requests.

Another important topic is the prices for trips to the USA. 72 % of the survey participants state that travel to the USA is more expensive than in the previous year, whereas 21 % consider the prices of equally expensive and 7 % find them cheaper. Especially for rental cars and motorhome prices, 37 % of higher prices report compared to 2023, 45 % see prices as the same and 18 % they find it cheaper.