Tour Operators Gun for 4 Percent Increase in European Market’s Travel Packages this Summer

The European travel package market could chalk up a modest 4 percent increase in 2004 following two years of bleak figures, an annual research study conducted among 150 tour operators by German travel magazine FVW revealed this week.

However, experts were hoping to see better numbers on the board, taking into account a strong recovery in bookings earlier this year. But the rebound of the travel market apparently hit another snag over the course of the past month, leaving tour operators once again drowned in uncertainty as the summertime travel season closes in.

The report indicates that most of the 150 travel companies polled in the magazine’s survey reported steep declines in overall sales during 2003. Even the highest percentages came to pass in countries outside the euro beltway, like Great Britain and Switzerland, whose currencies lost ground to the euro.

First Choice, for instance, grew 3 percent in pound sales, but skidded twice as much that figure compared to the euro. The TUI Group got a tighter grip of the top spot among European tour operators, thanks in part to its merger with Nouvelles Frontières.

Thomas Cook grabbed the runner-up notch with €1 billion more in global sales than third-place My Travel. Alltours climbed up a notch pushed by sales in the double digits, while Hotelplan dropped one step as it only included yearly commissions paid to its own travel agencies rather than total revenues raked in by the group.

In all, Europe’s ten biggest tour operators added up €41 billion in sales in 2003, compared to €43.4 billion the year before, a 5.3 percent slide.