A sunny Sunday draws to a close – sunny times for the travel industry this weekend: over 32,000 visitors attended the travel fair in Dresden, ensuring a pre-corona level of visitor numbers – despite the rail strike. The optimistic statements of the current FUR travel analysis were confirmed by the rush of visitors: people travel despite worries about the future. And not just once a year – experts are even talking about a second holiday boom. At the beginning of the year, more than 300 exhibitors from 15 countries presented thousands of holiday destinations worldwide at the Dresden Travel Fair. There was strong demand for exotic but safe holiday destinations such as Japan and Mongolia. Erdenetsetseg Damchaabadgar-Bär from EOB-Reisen had brought travel packages to Mongolia to Dresden and confirmed the high demand. In the readers' poll of the US travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler, on the other hand, Japan took the top spot as the world's best travel destination for 2024. The Dresden Travel Fair is characterised by extremely high booking levels – no wonder, as the first few months of the year are the main booking period. Experience shows that the annual holiday is planned at the end of January at the Dresden Travel Fair, and early booking offers and trade fair discounts speed up the decision-making process. Dr. Uwe Lorenz from Eberhardt Travel notes: ‘Customers are booking again for longer periods. And they combine offers to get to know the holiday region as fully as possible with just one journey. This applies above all to long flights such as to Australia and New Zealand.‘ Frank Schulz from schulz aktiv reisen also confirms that existing customers are keen to book. The Camper & Caravan-Days were also dominated by a willingness to decide, with hundreds of motorhomes and caravans – people are buying here in Dresden because the manufacturers’ trade fair packages will expire shortly.
On Sunday afternoon, the Saxon Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, Barbara Klepsch, visited the Saxon tourism providers at the trade fair and the e-BIKE days, among other things. Electric bikes continue to be the largest growth segment in the bicycle industry. The minister was introduced to the current innovations and the latest models and emphasised: ‘Active holidays are in vogue. This is good for tourism in Saxony. Not only is the Elbe Cycle Route, one of Germany's most popular long-distance cycle routes, located in the Free State. With the tourism funding programmes of recent years, we have supported numerous cycle tourism measures. Not only cycle routes such as the Oder-Neisse Cycle Route or the Frog Cycle Route, but also developments in the mountain bike and gravel sectors,’ said the minister. In addition, the minister also visited the Czech Republic stand and found out what the Czech Republic is marketing in Saxony. The topic of ‘Active Holidays & Recreation’ was the focus of this year's presentation by CzechTourism. Traditionally, the popular neighbouring countries of the Czech Republic and Poland are represented at the travel fair in Dresden. Poland will be even more involved in the fair next year, with offers from the Baltic Sea to Lower Silesia. The next travel fair will take place in Dresden from 31 January to 2 February 2025.
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