More of everything is the general theme of German tour operator programmes for summer 2016, an fvw review of major destination offerings shows.
An offensive in America, on Majorca and in the Adriatic. A summer for families. Bulgaria as a new trend destination. German tour operators have not been short of slogans to describe their programme highlights for next summer. But in fact all these words cannot hide the fact that there are actually not many changes.
The sheer quantity of summer brochures has also barely been reduced. DER Touristik leads with 78 different brochures, TUI has 41, Thomas Cook 30 and FTI 26. Schauinsland-Reisen (9) and Alltours (8) are much more compact.
Spain as top priority
Spain, as always, is top of everyone’s growth list. Alltours chief Willi Verhuven declared: “We want to keep growing in Spain.” The tour operator is expanding its Allsun hotel chain and offering more children’s discounts. DER Touristik’s ITS and Jahn Reisen have expanded their portfolio on Majorca, Schauinsland-Reisen is offering modernised hotels on an exclusive basis while FTI has expanded its hotel programme by 20%, including “the biggest offering in the company’s history” on the Canary Islands.
TUI and Thomas Cook want to grow in Spain as well. TUI has more Sensimar hotels, new Family Life hotels and several modernised Riu properties among its programme, while Cook announced capacity expansion on Majorca, the Canary Islands and the Spanish mainland.
Greek potential for next summer
Similarly, Greece is seen as a destination with plenty of potential next summer. TUI has more Sensimar hotels, new Family Life properties, a new Robinson Club and other exclusive offerings on various islands and the mainland. Thomas Cook will open its first Casa Cook property on Rhodes, Alltours has added several small islands and FTI is offering more up-market properties.
In contrast, there are fewer new products in Turkey. Thomas Cook’s specialist brand Öger Tours has expanded its Istanbul programme substantially but the group’s offering is otherwise “stable at last year’s level”. Other German tour operators are focusing more on exclusive offers. TUI has more Sensimar, Best Family, TUI Blue and Robinson properties, FTI has two Labranda hotels on the Aegean coast and DER will open a new five-star Cooee family resort in Belek.
Long-haul travel
Once again, all major tour operators are also pinning their growth hopes on long-haul travel next summer. The long-standing market leader DER Touristik claims to have “the largest current offering for tours worldwide”, Thomas Cook has increased flight capacity by 50%, mostly on new Condor flights, and TUI has expanded its programme by 20%, especially in North America. FTI has also expanded its North America programme with 80 new tours, 20 new cruises and 25% more hotels.
Africa is making a comeback with more hotels in various tour operator programmes, most tour operators are continuing to expand their programmes for the Maldives, and there are also more tours and hotel offers in Asia and South America.
Source: http://www.tornosnews.com
No Comments Yet!
You can be first to comment this post!