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The spread of corona has devastating consequences for the German travel industry. Small organizers are just as affected as large companies. Now the state should help.
So now South Tyrol too. Last week, the Robert Koch Institute declared the autonomous region in northern Italy to be a risk area, and the Federal Foreign Office then issued a travel warning . The ski season in South Tyrol ended on Monday, a month earlier than planned. Lifts, hotels and restaurants will be closed from Wednesday to April 3rd. This Tuesday, the RKI declared all of Italy a risk area, while the government in Rome decreed that trips to other places are only allowed to a limited extent. A spokeswoman for tourism marketing in South Tyrol said that the crisis would hit the economy clearly.
The spread of the corona virus has serious consequences not only in popular ski areas, the entire travel industry is affected. Museums and theaters in Italy have been closed for days. Tourism in China came to an almost complete standstill. In Japan, cruise operator Luminous Cruise recently filed for bankruptcy.
In Germany, many companies are now trying to counter the crisis by changing the terms of use. At TUI, for example, newly booked vacations can be canceled or rebooked free of charge up to the end of April up to 14 days before departure. But not only large companies, also small providers are affected by the crisis, especially those that have to do with the currently two seriously affected travel destinations China and Italy. At the end of February, the Hamburg company China Tours was the first German tour operator to file for bankruptcy as a result of the virus outbreak .
DLT Travel is based in Büchenbach, a small community in Middle Franconia. The tour operator , a company with five employees, works directly with hotels abroad and with bus companies. His company has two mainstays, says managing director Stephan Drescher-Kaden. Group trips to destinations all over the world on the one hand, individual trips on the other. And the latter had one main destination: Italy.
He has never experienced a situation like this at the moment, says Drescher-Kaden. Neither the 2003 Sars epidemic nor avian flu. "The situation is very difficult for us travel providers," he says. "Because we don't know what's going to happen next." First, says Drescher-Kaden, it was still a distant problem. But the closer the outbreaks came geographically, the greater the uncertainty among customers.
For customers who have ordered trips to Italy and want to rebook or cancel, there are guidelines, Drescher-Kaden says: These are trips that are definitely not feasible because, for example, a visit to the - currently closed - Milanese Scala included, the price will be reimbursed, says the organizer. Otherwise, it depends on the individual case, on what "was specifically agreed for the individual trips".
He does not yet need financial help from the state, says Drescher-Kaden. But what he wanted was a different communication policy. "It is often not even clear why a particular region is classified as vulnerable or not," he says. "I find that difficult." Others see politics as a greater duty.
"People are insecure and are currently holding back on bookings," says Norbert Fiebig, President of the German Travel Association. This "reservation reluctance", as he calls it, poses economic problems for travel providers and intermediaries. In a survey of 450 member companies, the majority of respondents said that sales would drop by up to 75 percent. To counteract this, says Fiebig, "precise political instruments are needed".
