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This year's ITB is under pressure from a strike by ground staff of the Lufthansa and Deutsche Bahn groups. The Verdi union used an important moment to put pressure on the employers and launched a strike that will paralyze a good part of public transport from Thursday 07/03 at 04:00 to Saturday 09/03 at 07:00.
During that period, all flights of the Lufthansa group were cancelled, and it was not possible to travel by train either. The union demands a 35-hour work week with full pay.
This situation caused great nervousness among all ITB participants, as departures on Friday, the day after the stock market close, are much more difficult. Instead of fully focusing on work, many participants are forced to look for solutions to return home at the same time.
Vulnerability of air destinations
The strike also exposed the great vulnerability of airline destinations when it comes to such union actions. The financial damages will be huge, but also the bitter taste of insecurity for many ITB participants who have already felt the consequences of a strike for the second time in several years.
Decline in offline activity
In addition, a significant decline in the economic effect of ITB is observed. Before Covid 19, the whole city was marked by ITB, offline advertisements were present at every step, news from ITB was shown on every TV network, almost every hotel in the center has free bus transportation to the fair, every evening parties were held in hotels and bars, the fairgrounds were "bursting at the seams" with exhibitors and business visitors.
ITB is still the largest, most influential business tourism fair in Europe and the largest tourism congress, but the level of the overall event is significantly lower.
Digital transition in the Postcovid era
The post-Covid era has brought many changes and accelerated the digital transition. Huge amounts of money are being invested in digital marketing, the creation of large databases and the implementation of artificial intelligence. That is why in the future such events will have a completely different significance. People from the industry must meet in person at least once a year, and ITB is an opportunity to meet all important partners from the country and abroad in one place in a few days.
Desire for affordable travel
As for German travel, the desire is still great. What was announced last year was confirmed in research this year. More attention will be paid to travel expenses.
According to FUR's Reiseanalyse, 73% of respondents will definitely travel, 41% of respondents already have a travel plan. 43% of respondents plan to spend the same amount of travel as last year, 7% plan to spend less, 15% of respondents will spend more this year than last year and 36% are still not sure how much they will be able to spend. In 2023, the average consumption per person and trip was 1337 euros. This is the largest amount so far.
Organized and individual trips
Organized trips from Germany grew significantly in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the research of the DRV association, thanks to the recovery of circular, boat trips. The total percentage of organized trips in 2023 was 47,2%.
2019 was at 50%. Individual trips participate in total traffic with 52,8%. A good part of the reason for the still smaller turnover of organized trips compared to individual ones lies in price increases that drastically increased the price of arrangements in 2023, while at the same time, due to inflation and slow wage growth, the purchasing power of travelers fell.
Nedo Pinezić, www.nedopinezic.com
