Automatic

💸 FTI Group customers targeted by phishing SMS fraud posed as communications from the German rescue fund DRSF. The DRSF began the largest refund process on August 8 with "more than 215,000 canceled tourist packages." Fraud attempts coincide with DRSF contacting customers for refunds, involving millions in three digits. Refunds processing requires three documents from consumers and will take several weeks, potentially until September. This follows FTI Touristik's bankruptcy and DRSF's creation post-Thomas Cook collapse in 2019.

🏖️ Mexico welcomed 21.82 million international tourists and garnered $16.276 billion in tourism revenue from January to June 2024, marking increases of 6.2% and 6.9% respectively. Air arrivals totaled 12.43 million, up by 4.9% from 2023 and 19.5% from 2019. Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués reported $14.896 billion in earnings, up 7% from the previous year and 40.2% from pre-pandemic levels. Cruise passengers reached 5.15 million, a 10.2% increase from 2019, contributing $435.1 million, 34.3% higher than pre-pandemic figures. The balance for international visitors hit $12.719 billion, a 2.7% rise from 2023 and a 51.4% jump from 2019's first semester.

🏅 Paris welcomed 11.2 million visitors during the Olympic Games, a 4% increase from the previous year but just shy of the 11.3 million anticipated. Hotel occupancy reached 84% from July 23 to August 6, up 10.1 points from 2023. Of the visitors, 44.6% were local, 27.7% domestic day-trippers, 12.5% from other French regions, and 15.2% foreigners. Tourists from the USA, Germany, and the UK made up 13.5%, 7.6%, and 6.8% respectively. International arrivals are expected to rise by 7.9% between the Olympics and the upcoming Paralympics from August 28 to September 8.

🏖️ World2Meet (W2M), the travel division of Grupo Iberostar, acquired the incoming travel business of BestDay in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, including transportation companies. BD Experience, part of BestDay acquired by Despegar for $56.5 million in 2020, joins W2M offering ground transport and group travel services with offices in Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, and Punta Cana. The strategic operation in the Caribbean complements W2M's other acquisitions: Viajes Cibeles, Viajes Eroski in 2023, Bytour in 2022, Grupo Azul Marino in 2021, and Viajes Dos in 2020.

🏕 In 2023, Eurostat data shows Paris leading with 19.3 million tourist overnight stays in short-term rentals, followed by Rome (12.5 million), Barcelona (10.9 million), Lisbon (10.5 million), and Madrid (9.5 million). The top five account for 8.7% of the EU's 719 million stays booked through Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor. Spanish cities Málaga, Sevilla, and Valencia are also in the top 20. Benidorm, Benalmádena, and Torremolinos in Spain have the highest tourist-to-local ratio in the EU, with figures like 8.2%.