Charter market: High prices, winners and losers - the charter trends for 2023
Andreas Fritsch
· 11.12.2023
In the charter industry, there are only a few regularly collected, concrete figures about the market. The industry associations of the agencies sometimes publish some figures on the occasion of trade fairs, but regular and in-depth analyses of booking trends are rare. Although some destinations, such as Croatia, publish key data on nautical visitors, the number of charter yachts based, etc. every year, the European markets are not very transparent as only a few other countries do the same. Figures from agencies are a very good guide. Against this background, an analysis of the online Globesailor booking platform very interesting for the year 2023.
Croatia is weakening, overseas territories are slowly coming back
The French company with several European branches, including in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, derived trends from the 6,200 bookings that were processed through them. The anonymised customer data was analysed for this purpose. However, only just under twelve per cent of this is data from German, Austrian or Swiss customers, so it is more of a European view of the charter market. After many years of growth, Croatia has obviously lost ground and, although it still occupies first place in customer favour, it has become somewhat weaker. This may be due to the very uneven increase in prices for services and restaurant visits in the wake of the euro changeover, but perhaps also to the fact that many crews were travelling there during the pandemic years and are now looking for a change. Greece is maintaining its strong position in second place, which it has slowly but steadily conquered over the past few years. It is also striking that overseas destinations are making a comeback after years of weak bookings. These had fallen somewhat by the wayside in 2021/22 due to complicated travel rules and sometimes patchy flight connections.
The ratio between catamaran and monohull bookings also appears to be moving somewhat.
For years, the development has really only gone in one direction: upwards. There were more and more cats in the fleets and sailing areas, and customers went along with this, as the space miracles were considered ideal for many crews: Space without end, ideal for anchoring, no position when sailing. However, the boats are more expensive than monohulls, and charter prices for catamarans in particular have recently risen noticeably. The very high mooring fees for cats in marinas in some areas may also be a factor. Perhaps the charter crews simply want to sail monohulls again for a change, which for many is the original, more sporty way in which they came to sailing.
Other exciting trends in figures
- 10-15 % on average theWeekly rates for charter yachts in Europe in 2023
- 4,408 Euro gave the averageGermancrew for their yacht, without extras. This is only one per cent more than in 2022, from which Globesailor deduces that customers have logically chartered either smaller, older or less well-equipped boats due to the price increases this year.
- 10-20 % The main decline was in theCustomer demand for the low and high season. Customers took until the beginning of the year to make a decision and then deliberately avoided the high-price period of the year, especially July and August.
- 25 % thePrices for flightsworldwide (source: Federal Statistical Office) and even almost by32 % forIntra-European connections. In 2024, prices are also likely to rise again, as the federal authorities have announced that they will increase the costs of security at airports. The operators will probably pass this on directly to the airlines.
- The proportion of early bookers, who take advantage of the discounts at least 6 months or more before booking and are thus able to counteract the rising charter prices, increased to 20%.
However, there are also positive trends for customers: "Due to the drop in demand, there are more last-minute offers again, some with greater discounts," says Kirsten Richarz, Country Manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Globesailor. "In the post-corona period, demand was so high that fleet operators hardly needed it, but now that has changed again." Nevertheless, the conclusion is not negative: the charter industry has now returned to the pre-coronavirus level of 2019. Not every market in tourism can claim that.
With signs like these, 2024 looks set to be an exciting, perhaps even challenging year for the charter industry. In any case, the time of easy double-digit growth after the coronavirus years is over for now. boot in Düsseldorf, traditionally the most important charter trade fair in Germany, will show what 2024 will be like at the end of January. After the trade fair, agencies and fleet operators can usually tell quite clearly whether it will be a good or bad year.
