Southwest tourism recorded billions in losses in 2021. In 2022 the industry recovered. The hard-hit hospitality industry now faces three major uncertainties.
Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) – After billions in losses due to Corona last year and a recovery in the current year, the hospitality industry, which was hit particularly hard, is looking forward to an uncertain autumn and winter. “We see three major uncertainties in particular,” said Daniel Ohl, spokesman for the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baden-Württemberg, the German Press Agency in Stuttgart.
The coming months will be burdened by the effects of inflation on consumer behavior, energy security and the development of the corona pandemic. Nevertheless, the booking situation and demand are currently good, which makes the industry generally optimistic, said Ohl. In isolated cases, however, companies have already reported a drop in consumption.
According to a study, gross sales in tourism in 2021 were almost 7.6 billion euros lower than in 2019. With a total of 17.8 billion euros, guests in Baden-Württemberg spent almost a third less than before the crisis. This is the result of an analysis published on Monday by the German Economic Institute for Tourism, which is prepared every two years on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism and Economics in Baden-Württemberg.
In the meantime, the situation has improved significantly, as recently published figures from the State Statistical Office show. In June, the number of overnight stays was 5.4 million and thus only 3.1 percent below the value of June 2019. In the first half of 2022, more than twice as many overnight stays were recorded as in the same period of the previous year.
Overall, a clear recovery became apparent in the first half of the year, which should continue in view of the current tourist high season, according to the statisticians. According to Dehoga spokesman Ohl, when exactly the pre-crisis level will be reached depends on how normally the companies can work in the next few months.
The study documents the drastic economic effects of the corona pandemic with figures and data, said Secretary of State for Tourism Patrick Rapp (CDU). “According to current calculations, tourism in Baden-Württemberg recorded weekly sales losses of around 145.3 million euros in 2021.” Even if the industry was initially able to recover in 2022, new uncertainties are associated with the war in Ukraine. Tourism is also having an impact on other industries in the country, Rapp said.
According to the figures, the slump in sales in the hospitality industry was particularly severe with a minus of almost 40 percent. But retail and other service sectors also suffered from the significantly lower number of guests and recorded a drop in income of 19 and 28 percent. And while arithmetically 380,000 people were still able to live from tourism before the pandemic, this number fell to 250,000. It is to be feared that the majority of the employees who have migrated will not return to the industry, said Rapp.
The lion’s share of the income came from day visitors in 2021 as well: they left around 10.3 billion euros in Baden-Württemberg. That was around 17 percent less than in 2019. Bans on accommodation and other corona measures hit the office even harder for overnight guests: Here, sales fell by around 42 percent and were still at 5.4 billion euros in 2021. Overnight stays in private households brought in an additional 2 billion euros. That was 10 percent less than in 2019.
