2024-09-24 19:20:20
Balance sheet of tour operators
These were the most popular travel destinations in 2024
Updated on 24.09.2024 – 15:58Reading time: 3 min.
Germans’ desire to travel was unabated in the 2024 peak season. And one holiday destination was way ahead.
Even though we still have a few months to go this year, the main travel season is already over. For many travel companies and booking portals, this is an opportunity to look back on the past season. How did Germans feel about traveling – and which destination was the most popular?
One country was particularly popular with Germans this year: Turkey. Turkey is in first place for the two major tour operators, Tui and Dertour. “One in five people chose the popular holiday destination,” said Dertour product manager Sven Schikarsky to the German press agency dpa. For families, it was almost one in three.
In addition to Turkey, the most popular short- and medium-haul destinations at Dertour included Spain (second place), Greece (third place) and Egypt and Italy (shared fifth place). Germany was able to maintain fourth place despite falling demand.
The reason for the drop in domestic guests was the bad weather, said Schikarsky. “The sometimes heavy rainfall and relatively cold temperatures at the beginning of June meant that many guests opted for sunny destinations.”
The most popular travel destinations in Germany
Those who spent their summer holidays in Germany despite all this travelled mainly to Bavaria. According to a representative survey by the consumer panel service GfK, which belongs to YouGov, one in six people who went on holiday in this country stayed in the southern federal state. The survey was carried out on behalf of the German Retail Association (HDE).
Bavaria was followed by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (11 percent), Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia (10 each), Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein (9). According to the survey, almost half of consumers in Germany traveled this summer. One in three of them went on holiday within Germany.
Domestic summer holidays are an important economic factor
According to YouGov, people who went on holiday in the north of Germany preferred to spend their time by the sea, on the coast or on an island. In the south, many went to the mountains. The most common type of trip was a family holiday (37 percent), followed by a beach and bathing holiday (28), a city trip (26) and a hiking holiday (21). Multiple answers were possible here.
According to estimates by the HDE, people from Germany spent a total of around five billion euros in retail during their summer vacation in their own country. Most of this was spent on food and drinks, visits to restaurants, and on leisure activities and souvenirs. “Domestic tourism boosts sales in retail. After all, vacation time is also shopping time,” said HDE General Manager Stefan Genth. Summer vacations in one’s own country are an important economic factor.
Those who didn’t feel like vacationing on their own doorstep were drawn to faraway places. Dertour reported a 37 percent increase in guests on long-haul routes. “Destinations such as the United Arab Emirates or the Indian Ocean are now firmly established among summer destinations,” said Schikarsky. The most popular long-haul destinations continue to be the USA and Canada.
In addition, a new trend is emerging in view of the increasing heat: the “coolcation”. This is a combination of the English terms “cool” and “vacation”. Although most Germans travel south in the summer, more and more tourists want to go to cooler regions. According to Dertour, the Scandinavian countries were in greater demand in the summer of 2024, especially Norway.
Tour operators also have no reason to complain this year. According to Dertour, they recorded an 18 percent increase in guests from June to September this year compared to the previous summer. According to the company, guest numbers are now roughly back to pre-coronavirus levels.
The insolvency of the tour operator FTI also contributed to the increase in booking numbers, it was said. FTI, previously the third largest German tour operator after Tui and Dertour, filed for insolvency at the beginning of June and shortly afterwards canceled all trips that had already been booked.
Tui has also been doing well recently – the world’s largest travel company spoke of a record quarter. After the FTI bankruptcy, 75,000 additional vacation places were created for the upcoming autumn holidays.