Tourism news April, 8 2003

New bookings down dramatically

Booking levels over the past four weeks have seen a dramatic deterioration. Tour operators are allowing customers to change their bookings for Turkey, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as well as for Tunisia and Cyprus free of charge until the 30^th of April.

A considerable number of consumers have taken advantage of this offer, but despite this attempt to restore confidence, the level of new bookings made in March is down by about fifty percent.

Here are the figures for the month of February:

Majorca down forty percent for Easter

The Majorcan Hotel Association is reporting a forty percent fall in bookings from Germany for the Easter period. Bookings from Great Britain are down six percent for the same period.

Summer as a whole with approximately double-digit decline

Reports from travel agency sources indicate a double-digit fall in bookings for the summer season as a whole. This is more or less in line with the figures released by the major German tour operators.

Tenerife and Fuerteventura up, Bulgaria too

Bright spots in the general gloom are the Canary Islands of Tenerife and Fuerteventura, parts of the Spanish mainland (such as Andalusia) and, particularly, Bulgaria.

Iraq war puts damper on holiday mood – ETI publishers new survey

The Iraq war is dampening Germans’ holiday ambitions: 41 percent are afraid of terror attacks on holiday – especially in destinations in Arab countries, Turkey and the USA . Nevertheless, 56 percent of Germans will ”definitely” or ”probably” be going on holiday this year, according to a study by the European Tourism Institute (ETI) to be published on the 31^st of March, but a quarter of these say the Iraq war is influencing their holiday plans.

27 percent of Germans say they will ”definitely not” or ”probably not” be going on holiday in 2003, also as a result of the Iraq conflict. As such, this figure has risen by about ten percentage points in less than four weeks.

(C&C Contact & Creation)