Tourism Sales Climate Index September 2019

Even though travel agencies continue to perceive the 2019 booking year as weaker than the previous year, the slight upward trend in sentiment is continuing. Positive trends continue to emerge for September. On the one hand, the current booking situation is regarded as satisfactory by the majority of the travel agencies surveyed, and on the other hand, the sales department expects the earnings situation to improve slightly in the coming months.

Current situation

In September 2019, 30.2% of the participating travel agencies rated the current situation in travel service sales as good. This is slightly lower than in the previous month (31.8 %). However, slightly more than half (54.3 % of respondents) rated the current situation as satisfactory (50.9 % in the previous month) and only 15.5 % assessed the situation as poor. In the previous month this was still 17.3 %.

24.3% of respondents stated that sales of travel services had increased in the last 2-3 months compared to the previous year. This figure fell slightly from 25.5% in the previous month. 43.5% of the travel agencies surveyed believe that sales of travel services have remained unchanged in the last 2-3 months (previous month: 40.9%). Accordingly, only 32.2% of travel agencies observed a decline in the sale of travel services. This was 33.6% in the previous month.

Future situation

With regard to the future situation, 21.7 % of the participating travel agencies expect demand for travel services to rise in the next 6 months compared with the previous year. This figure has increased by approx. 4 percentage points compared to the previous month. 59.1% of the participants expect demand to remain constant over the next 6 months. This assessment has remained almost unchanged compared to the previous month (60.0 %). A decline in demand is still expected by 19.1 % (previous month 22.7 %). This month, 19.0 % expect the earnings situation to improve in the coming 6 months. In the previous month it was still 16.4 %. However, slightly less than half of those surveyed (47.4 %) assume that the earnings situation will not change in the next 6 months (previous month 50.0 %). At 36.6 %, the number of those expecting a deterioration has not changed compared to the previous month.

Summary

Triggered by the cautious optimism that had already emerged in July, the slight upward trend continued in September. Looking to the future, more travel agencies are confident again.

In September 2019, 116 travel agencies (110 sample from the previous month) gave their ratings.