The data scandal in the German travel trade has led to the cancellation of sales agreements between two of the top-four tour operators and half the country’s travel agents.
The widening fall-out from the affair, which saw Germany’s largest agency consortium RTK share sensitive commercial data with the country’s third-largest tour operator FTI, led Tui to cancel its agreements with RTK at the end of May.
Tui Germany pulled out of sales deals both with RTK and the larger Quality Travel Alliance (QTA) network of agents which RTK leads. Germany’s fourth-largest tour operator Schauinsland-Reisen then followed suit.
RTK represents more than 3,000 agencies, but it has joint ventures with Tui and Schauinsland-Reisen which take the number close to 4,200 and QTA extends RTK’s reach to more than 5,000 agencies – half the German total.
The data scandal was exposed by business newspaper Handelsblatt in early May, which revealed RTK systematically passed agency sales data to Germany’s third-largest operator FTI between 2015 and early 2023.
German trade title FVW noted the data enabled FTI to offer extra commissions and benefits to agencies which “agreed to re-focus sales activities away from other tour operators”.
The sales information was “extremely detailed . . . broken down by individual agency, tour operator, destination and hotel”, showing how much each generated and sales on behalf of competitor tour operators.
The data was shared “monthly, weekly and even daily”.
Tui cancelled its agreement with QTA, saying it lacked “any basis of confidence to continue cooperation”. In a letter to agencies, Tui said: “The disclosure of sales and booking data over a very long period to one of our competitors is in no way acceptable.”
Schauinsland-Reisen argued its business had been “damaged massively”. Both companies pledged to compensate agents for loss of commission.
The head of the German travel industry association, the DRV, described the data sharing as “unacceptable” and has demanded a full investigation.
DRV president Norbert Fiebig warned it could damage the image of agents as impartial travel advisors.
RTK head Thomas Bosl issued an apology in a letter to agents, explaining the booking data shared with FTI comprised travel dates, hotel and tour operator details, and prices. But he said customer information was not shared.
He insisted: “RTK neither sold nor received any benefit for the [data] reports.”
Bosl also argued: “It was the free decision of a travel agency to decide which tour operator products it wanted to sell.”
RTK and FTI have a majority shareholder in common – billionaire Samih Sawiri, a member of Egypt’s wealthy Sawiri family and head of Orascom Development which builds and operates resorts.
However, Sawiri did not hold majority control of FTI throughout the period of data sharing.
He acquired a near 34% share in FTI in 2014 and the same year bought a 74.9% stake in RTK. Then in 2021, Sawiri bought out FTI founder Dietmar Gunz, taking his shareholding to just over 75%.
German regional bank VR (Volksbank Raiffeisenbank) owns the remainder of RTK and the bank’s chairman Wolfgang Altmüller has been chair of the FTI supervisory board since 2021.
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