Bookings in January this year were 9 percent higher than in January 2023, which was already a record month. This is reported by the ANVR on the basis of the ANVR-GfK Booking Monitor. There was particularly strong growth for the long-haul destination Australia, but North America and Asia also recorded double digits. In Europe, the top 3 (Spain +10%, France +15%, Germany +23%) recorded significant growth figures compared to January last year. The growth in bookings has slowed down slightly in recent months. In North America, growth is fairly spread across Canada and the various regions in the USA. As far as Asia is concerned, China is well back to pre-corona figures, but Indonesia is now the most popular Asian destination with almost 40% growth compared to a year ago. Nevertheless, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam recorded double-digit growth. Israel and Jordan recorded a sharp decline. In Europe, growth is visible in almost all destinations. Only Greece (-4%) and Sweden (-10%) fared worse than in January 2023. New in the ANVR-GfK figures is the booking period, or the number of days between booking and departure. On average, the customer booked 128 days (almost 4 months) in advance in January. This hardly differs from January 2023. The destinations or continents with the biggest differences have been listed. For Asia, the financial term has decreased considerably. This means that the (extra) bookers mainly booked for the reasonably short term. The accounting period for Germany went from 112 to 119 days. This means that Germany’s growth is mainly due to travellers who have already booked their summer holidays. The growth in the number of bookings does not have to lead to more holidays to Germany, but to previously booked holidays to Germany. (Photo Shutterstock).
