The FTI bankruptcy has changed the market: Travel agencies and package holidays are back

Germany

Organisers and distributors see a growing demand for higher-quality products, a desire for better advice in advance and a trend towards crisis-proof package holidays.

The insolvency of the FTI Group had a profound impact on the German tour operator market and led to major changes. The panel discussion at ITB Berlin 2025 shed light on the consequences of this upheaval: How has the market reorganised? Who benefits from the new market and supply structure? The experts on the panel agreed that the demand for higher-quality products had increased and that package holidays and travel agency sales had experienced a welcome upturn.

Roland Gassner from the market research institute Travel Data + Analytics opened the session with a presentation of the current situation in the tour operator market. "Since 2022, turnover in the travel market has grown faster than the number of people". A sign of increasing demand for higher-quality products.

Stronger focus on sustainable business development

Dr Ingo Burmester, CEO Central Europe at DERTOUR Group, was convinced that the market has changed. "Partners are concentrating more on sustainable business development. There is a strong focus on quality and dealing on equal terms. There has been a shift towards higher quality." In his opinion, the biggest beneficiaries of the FTI insolvency were travel agencies, which had experienced a genuine upturn. "The quality of the products is highest at travel agencies - and so is the rate of returnees," said Burmester, who could barely believe the industry’s luck. In addition, the bankruptcy of major tour operators had led to the return of organised trips – due to their being more crisis-proof. "Package holidays are also experiencing a resurgence!"

Benjamin Jacobi, CEO of TUI Deutschland GmbH, also observed a trend towards higher-quality products, but as an airline he also had to keep an eye on passenger volumes: "In general, we want to expand the level of service and further diversify our range with new, innovative products."

Shift to higher quality – ever since the pandemic

Songül Göktas-Rosati, managing director at Bentour Reisen, was very satisfied with the growing demand following the FTI insolvency. "We have been offering our customers good alternatives and good service." She could also confirm the shift towards higher quality, but this had less to do with FTI and more to do with the pandemic: "Ever since, people want to book higher-quality holidays."

Ömer Karaca, CEO of Schmetterling International GmbH & Co. KG, explained that everything in sales had simply shifted: initially, the major organisers had profited, and later on the specialists. "We will be very interested to see how things develop," said Karaca. He had also observed a shift towards higher-priced products but was aware that there could not only be visitor growth in the premium market. "Sales departments are happy when countries like Egypt and Tunisia are doing well, where travel products are more affordable. "We don't want dumping prices, but we do want to appeal to the masses," said Ömer.