FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - According to tourism expert Torsten Kirstges, the travel industry is doing well overall despite the insolvency of the FTI Group. Debt and bank loans from the coronavirus crisis are weighing on the industry. "But travel is strong, high-priced trips are in vogue and cruises are booming again," Kirstges told the German Press Agency. The remaining tour operators are likely to benefit from the FTI insolvency, the tourism researcher from Jade University in Wilhelmshaven expects. "People will travel despite the FTI insolvency and the billion-dollar cake will be divided among the other tour operators." By next year at the latest, the turbulence should no longer be noticeable in the overall figures.

FTI has recently lost confidence in the industry, partly due to its very weak 2022 balance sheet, said Kirstges. "FTI was rather price-aggressive and earned relatively little per trip with a comparatively weak equity base." In particular, the travel bans during the coronavirus pandemic ultimately caused the company major difficulties. The third-largest European travel group after Tui and DER Touristik was dependent on state aid during the pandemic, which has to be repaid. The company received a total of almost 600 million euros from the economic stabilization fund.

Europe's third-largest travel group, FTI, filed for insolvency at Munich Local Court on Monday. A consortium led by the US financial investor Certares actually wanted to take over the FTI Group for one euro and inject 125 million euros of fresh capital into the company. The competition authorities still had to approve the deal. According to the information provided, however, booking figures have recently fallen well short of expectations. "In addition, numerous suppliers insisted on advance payment. As a result, there was an increased need for liquidity, which could no longer be bridged until the closing of the investor process," FTI announced./mar/DP/zb