Sören Hartmann, CEO DER Travel and Tourism Group one: Mr Hartmann, your contract as CEO would normally have expired in the summer. It was recently announced that you have extended your contract until the end of the year. What motivated you to do this?

Sören Hartmann: The decision to extend my contract grew out of the pandemic. It was important to me to steer the course of DER Travel and Tourism until the end of the year in these special times. We can now see that: We are learning to deal with the pandemic better and better. Bookings are also picking up strongly again. The end of the year is therefore a good time for the change.

one: What consequences does this change at REWE Group Management Board level have for DER Travel and Tourism?

Sören Hartmann: CEO Lionel Souque will take over responsibility for the Travel and Tourism division from 1 January 2023. He will be able to rely on our strong management team on the International Management Board. We will clarify further details on the management structure within Travel and Tourism within the International Management Board by autumn 2022. In addition, we have further strengthened the digital expertise in management and have been able to recruit an extremely experienced digitalisation expert, Joao Gonzaga. He will be the new Chief Digital Officer of DER Travel and Tourism Group.

one: The pandemic has currently taken a back seat due to the war of aggression in Ukraine. How will the war affect tourism? What is your assessment of this?

Sören Hartmann: In this situation, we will certainly have to keep a close eye on how the situation develops over the next few days and weeks. At the moment, we are only experiencing a minor impact on booking behaviour within the Group. What we have clearly seen since the beginning of the year, however, is that the desire to travel is high. People feel a strong need to relax. At the same time, the easing of Covid regulations is making travelling easier internationally. This is a very good basis for the 2022 travel year.

one: Will the rise in petrol costs have an impact on travel prices in the short term?

Sören Hartmann: Anyone who has not yet booked will have to be prepared for the fact that there will be paraffin surcharges. That's why it's particularly important now: If you want to secure a favourable price, you should book as early as possible.
At the same time, the desire for holidays is so great that a surcharge of perhaps 50 euros on the medium-haul route will not be the deciding factor for most travellers. We are also observing that people are generally booking higher-priced holidays. People want to treat themselves to something, perhaps especially in these difficult times.

one: You emphasise people's desire to travel. How is this development reflected in the international booking figures? Where do we stand within the Group?

Sören Hartmann: We recorded a sharp increase in bookings across all countries at the beginning of the year. In some cases, the figures were above the 2019 level, which is a very good sign. It also shows that we did the right thing during the pandemic. By offering safe and flexible travel, we acted in a customer-friendly manner during the pandemic and further strengthened travellers' trust in our brands. We will also benefit from this in this travel year.

one: What is your sales forecast for Germany?

Sören Hartmann: In our budget planning for this year, we had envisaged being able to achieve around 80 per cent of the revenue from 2019. We now expect to achieve 85 to 90 per cent of the 2019 revenue. Demand is developing extremely positively.

one: How do you see our market position? Where does the DER Travel and Tourism Group stand today?

Sören Hartmann: As one of the leading travel groups in Europe, we are very well positioned today: We are No. 2 in the tourism market in Europe and we will defend and expand this position. We have come a long way: in recent years, we have pushed ahead with a Group-wide growth strategy and set our sails for expansion. The focus has been on internationalisation, verticalisation and digitalisation.

Today, we are not only represented in 16 countries with the DER Travel and Tourism Group, but have also consistently developed our value creation by integrating more services. The pandemic has not stopped us from doing this. Not only have we successfully implemented cost efficiency measures, we have also expanded our DMC (Destination Management Companies) network in the destinations and extended our Eastern European business. We successfully integrated our Eastern European activities last year and business there has developed very positively.

one: To stay on the subject of growth: The signs are also pointing to expansion in the hotel sector.

Sören Hartmann: That's right. We have strategically developed the hotel business. The joint venture with Deutsche Seereederei underlines our ambitions in this area. At the same time, we are continuing to develop our high-quality hotel brands such as Aldiana, Sentido and Playitas. The most recent example is the acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent of the Aldiana Group from the Swiss investment company LMEY. This means that the Aldiana Group is now fully owned by DER Travel and Tourism - subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities, of course.

one: A lot has also happened in terms of Sustainability. How important is this topic for you?

Sören Hartmann: In my view, Sustainability is the future topic of our time. Climate change affects us all and new generations are growing up realising that it's "five to twelve". We are therefore pursuing the topic of sustainability very consistently and have also made important progress during the pandemic: be it with the publication of Magalogen for conscious travel or the cooperation with Futouris e.V., an industry initiative for sustainability. Together, we have developed a feasibility study to create a CO2 balance sheet.

one: What strategic projects are you currently focussing on? What are the priorities for 2022?

Sören Hartmann: I think that 2022 will also be a year of new beginnings for us on many levels. This includes not only the strong growth in bookings, but also the changes in the way we work. We will move closer together as a group, collaborate much more internationally and shape important future topics together. This includes the topic of digitalisation in particular. We recently presented the first Group-wide digitalisation project.

one: What is planned in the area of digitalisation?

Sören Hartmann: We are seeing the travel market picking up strongly again and are using this momentum to drive the Group's digital transformation forward. Joao Gonzaga will provide us with significant support in this endeavour. With his international profile and many years of experience in developing digital strategies, he will help to make the Group much more agile and customer-centric in the future and drive forward digital innovations. I am very pleased to be able to accompany this exciting phase until the end of the year.

one: What's next for you after the turn of the year?

Sören Hartmann: First of all, I have to say that I am primarily focussing on the here and now. And for me, that means going full throttle again in the coming months. We have a very strong international management team, so I'm looking forward to working with them over the next few months.

Even after my time at DER Travel and Tourism, I will remain loyal to tourism: with the BTW presidency, I have taken on an important office that will continue to challenge me in the future. I am very much looking forward to putting important industry issues on the political agenda in this role. And even after 31 December, I will remain associated with DER Travel and Tourism and will be available to the company in an advisory capacity. This also includes my work for the Foundation, which is very close to my heart.

Thank you very much for the interview, Mr Hartmann.

The questions were asked by Marion ten Haaf, Head of Corporate Communications at DER Travel and Tourism Group