A boom in business travel accompanied the record economic growth of 2.2
percent in Germany for the second quarter of 2010, leading travel professionals
told BTN. The quarterly rise in gross
domestic product was the strongest Germany has experienced since reunification
in 1990 and was the overwhelming driver of a combined 1.7 percent increase
across the 16-nation euro zone, according to figures released Friday by the
European Union statistics agency Eurostat.
Business travel in Germany has thrived because the country’s economic
growth has been fuelled by a sharp rise in exports, said Torsten Kriedt,
director of innovation and intelligence for Advito, the consulting division of
BCD Travel.
“The number of trips taken by corporate clients in continental Europe
was more than 20 percent higher in the year to the end of July,” said Kriedt. “The
year started strongly and accelerated even more sharply in May and June.
Germany has not experienced the highest growth in travel bookings this year,
but that is because it was not doing as badly as some other countries during
the recession.
“Export growth is driving the travel growth in Germany. There is
normally a time lag between economic recovery and a recovery in business travel
bookings, but the gap is much smaller for export-driven economies like Germany
because first you have to go abroad and sell to bring in the business,” Kriedt
said.
Torsten Schäfer, head of communications for the national German travel association
DRV, said German travel management companies are experiencing much higher
booking volumes in 2010. “They are hoping to return to the levels of 2007-08 by
the end of this year,” he said. “The German economy is recovering much quicker
than expected and our companies are doing business all over the world.
Lufthansa told us this week that there has been a far quicker return to
business class than it had anticipated.”
Hans-Ingo Biehl, chief executive of German travel managers association
VDR, agreed that Germany companies are traveling more, but sounded a more
cautious note in his assessment. “Business
travel figures for the first two quarters seem to be in line with the positive
trend in the German economy,” he said. “However, we expect it’s still a long
way to go to reach pre-crisis levels.”
The annual VDR Business
Travel Report, published in June, forecast continued growth for German trip
volumes in 2011.