Despite the recession, the Germans' huge appetite for travel is back!

Things are looking up again, or even better: around the world! After all, Germans' appetite for travel is back after the pandemic years: this is reflected in a representative survey of customers conducted by Germany's largest bonus program PAYBACK in the run-up to the ITB in Berlin (International Tourism Exchange, 5-7 March 2024).

Here, 78% of all respondents stated that they are planning one or even several trips this year. City trips (43%) and package tours (35%) are particularly popular. 91% state that price plays a very important role.

The more than 31 million PAYBACK customers in Germany can collect PAYBACK points when booking with many well-known travel partners such as Aida, booking.com, Condor, Expedia, Holidaycheck, ltur, RTK and TUI and thus save money.

The survey also shows that there is a clear trend towards online bookings. 83% of all respondents have already booked a trip online, with over 91% in the 18 to 44 age group. It is interesting to note that the trustworthiness of the provider (84%) is also important in the decision-making process and that the ordering process should be as simple as possible (92%).

40% of respondents say that sustainability is important to them - and 30% are actually prepared to pay more for a sustainable trip. Although 83% of respondents know little or nothing about Oman, the ITB Guest of Honour 2024, over 40% find Oman "exciting" and a quarter of respondents can imagine taking a vacation there.

"Travel fever is back, even if we are not quite at the same level as before 2019 - partly due to inflation and the significant rise in travel prices," says PAYBACK Managing Director Dominik Dommick. "It is therefore understandable that 76% of respondents say that they rely on discounts and opportunities to save when making bookings, and they can do this with PAYBACK." On the other hand, PAYBACK offers the travel business a marketing platform with the enormous reach of over 31 million active customers and 11 million PAYBACK app users. "With our data-driven marketing, we reach the right customers at the right time via the right channel," says Dommick.

The survey was conducted in February 2024 with 1,500 PAYBACK customers via the PAYBACK Panel.