Foto: Jakub Hněvkovský
Travel usually booms during winter holidays and the trends this year show that Austria should be the top destination for skiing, while Egypt beats other sunny destinations in the top hierarchy of local travelers.
For Invia.cz, the largest domestic online travel agency, this season has brought several surprises in terms of favorite destinations of local customers. As the economic crisis has taken effect, Czech tourists have switched travel patterns and chosen either snowy neighboring countries like Austria for skiing, or Egypt and Turkey for an exotic destination or shopping tourism. The highest decline was in luxury travel, as clients learn to adjust their wallets to current realities. Even though 2010 will still stand under the sign of savings, by 2011 the Czech travel market should pick up again, Michal Drozd, managing partner and founder of Invia.cz told CBW.
Q: Where will most Czechs or Czech-based tourists travel this winter?
A: On average, most winter travelers go for ski destinations, which is natural. These destinations are the ones they like the most. But on our website the number one is Egypt. People want to go to warm places and enjoy the sun. However, this winter we can see that more and more tourists are traveling to ski destinations. The absolute winner this winter is Austria. One of the reasons is that everyone talks about the crisis and the vacation expenditure is the first to be cut. Yet, going to Austria is relativity cheap and you can travel by car; you don’t have to fly there. The second destination is Italy and, what is surprising is that France has declined.
Q: How about Switzerland? This is typically a favorite location for winter sports.
A: Switzerland is a destination where Czech people don’t travel so much because it is quite expensive to go there and it’s not easily accessible by car. There is nothing surprising and nothing new when you compare [current figures] to last year. But the biggest difference is in the amount of luxury travel. They suffered the most among other packages. Instead of going to Cuba, the Maldives or Seychelles, people have decided not to go there and maybe go to Egypt or just go for nicer ski vacations.
Q: Because we are speaking about prices, what is the price evolution this winter?
A: This winter we can see a continuous trend of lower prices for beach destinations compared to last year. Ski packages are doing much better—Austria and Italy have become more popular than last year, with 20 percent more customers, whereas France and Switzerland have a small decline in our sales.
Q: What trends do you notice for Christmas and New Year’s?
A: Usually, New Year’s is sold out a long time in advance. This year, if you look outside, it doesn’t look like winter weather. This means that some customers are canceling their New Year’s vacations because they wanted to ski and that’s not really possible this winter in the Czech Republic or in Austria. However, Slovakia remains the best place to secure a package vacation at this moment.
Q: What trends do you expect after New Year’s?
A: Usually in January we start from a dead time. Afterwards, the season is starting—slowly, but it’s starting because there is a strong seasonality in our business. We’ve got extremely strong picks in summer, when everyone goes for the last minute [deals]. Then, after September, it quickly goes down and it’s the same until the end of the year. From January, you can see a boom of short break offers and it goes up till summer, but also there is new demand for spring vacations. In the Czech Republic, [vacation] is for one week and it’s changing [from one year to the other]. This is something we have to be prepared for to offer to our clients.
Q: What will be the favorite targets for shopping tourism early next year?
A: I can’t see a trend in this type of traveling. Honestly, we don’t ask customers about their travel purpose. Yet, a trend we notice is a higher [interest in] Arabic [countries]. Turkey, with Istanbul and other cities [is also up]. Traveling to Arabic countries is quite a strong new trend that we didn’t see last year and it’s also connected to the market situation. The decline of the travel market makes packages cheaper and more popular.
Q: What can customers who didn’t secure a trip this winter still do?
A: The easier answer is just to visit our website and find something there. Invia is the biggest [online] market place for tour operators’ offers. We represent almost 200 tour operators. We’ve got subsidiaries in Slovakia, so we can offer flights from Slovakia as well. As one of our brothers is a German tour operator, German and Austrian tour operators can also be found on our website. Moreover, we have the same prices as tour operators and this is one of the key advantages we have compared to tour operators.
Q: What trends do you spot in last minute offerings? Are they indeed cheaper and more convenient for customers than timely trip planning?
A: I’m not sure how the next season will look because, according to Prague [Ruzyně] Airport, there was a 50 percent decline of charter flights. It’s quite important to recognize that this crisis has an influence on the travel industry and this will lead tour operators to be more careful. So, I cannot say whether next summer there will be plenty of last minute [offerings] and clients will look for bargains. Tour operators should be prepared for this and decrease the supply at least a little bit. So, the trend shouldn’t be very different than last summer—there will still be a huge amount of customers who are waiting for the last moment and then they have so many requests and they want everything according to their expectations. They can find it but the fact that you are buying at the last minute also carries the risk you won’t finish at the place you wanted to be from the beginning.
Q: Are prices in travel agency announcements more transparent now?
A: I guess you are talking about the changes in the law which is effective from Nov. 18. This is a question for tour operators, because there are major tour operators who have a different explanation of this law. The law isn’t 100 percent clear; there are some expectations and definitions which are not finished. [Thus, the law] opens small holes for someone who wants to go into a little bit different direction. At Invia … we started to show the prices according to the new law from almost one year ago. [The problem is that] it’s hard for one tour operator to start with full price packages compared to those who don’t follow the same rule. If you are showing the full price packages and the others are showing just the basic ones, it seems that you are extremely expensive. This law must apply to the whole market; if everyone follows this rule, then the market will be much more customer oriented.
Q: But how would you characterize the situation at this moment?
A: Right now, each tour operator is trying to show the lowest price possible and we see some tours operators using strange techniques. We are happy with this law; I'm not sure if it’s going to work this year, but next year it definitely will.
Q: Can travelers really trust what they see in an offer at first sight?
A: In 90 percent [of cases] they can, but it’s always better to check. For Invia, we try to reach 100 percent, but you can’t promise because we are receiving data from tour operators and if these are not complete, we calculate them ourselves to make a complete package price and I hope this helps customers.
Q: What factors will influence the Czech travel market in 2010?
A: I still expect the crisis will influence the travel industry in 2010. So far, I know that some tour operators are still expecting a decline on the market. My expectation is that the supply will be a little bit lower and the prices will remain the same as they were in 2009, because I don’t see any possibility that they will go down. We have some destinations where prices dropped by 50 percent and I doubt it can go even lower.
Q: What about 2011?
A: I think in 2011 the market will go slightly up because Czech people are used to traveling a lot. They traveled in 2008 really a lot, so they gave up vacations in 2009 in order to see how the reality looks. For 2010, as I said, I think it will be the same as this year. Yet, in 2011 traveling should pick up again, in my view.