Lüthi criticizes L'ur: Fat holiday disregarded travel values!

Lüthi criticizes L'ur: Fat holiday disregarded travel values!

Luzern, Schweiz - In Switzerland, an advertising campaign causes excitement that deals with the topic of travel. André Lüthi, the CEO of Globetrotter, recently complained about a poster from L’Ur with the slogan "narrow price, fat holidays". In his opinion, this representation is disrespectful towards both the local population and the entire travel industry. Lüthi emphasizes on LinkedIn that travel is a school of life that contributes to international understanding. He vehemently criticizes that such advertising formats put an entire profession in a bad light and do not do justice to the travel countries. It should be emphasized that he has already questioned the advertising money from Switzerland tourism and indicates the importance of satisfied customers as the best advertising. Other Swiss advertisers have also joined the criticism. Kaspar Loeb, Senior Consultant at CRK, emphasizes that provocation in advertising should touch but do not violate, while Frank Bodin, CEO of Bodin.Consulting, describes the campaign as inappropriate. The advertising agency L’Ur has not yet reacted to the concerns.

The discussion about advertising falls into a time when the tourism sector faces major challenges. The SRV specialist conference gained relevance thematically. In the new format of the SRV Arena, inspired by the SRF show Arena, SRV President Martin Wittwer reissued the event after rather moderate results in the previous conferences in Sevilla and Parma. Topics such as the changing travel landscape and overtourism were discussed in detail. Among the discussion were prominent representatives of the industry, including Birgit Sleegers from Helbling Reisen and Pierre-Alain Regali, co-founder of eBookers. Regali asked the question of the future of travel experts and emphasized the need for service and innovation in the industry. In view of overtourism, various experts were also concerned about the effects on the locals. In this context, Lüthi advocated more exclusive and more expensive trips and asked whether this was financially wearable for families.

forecasts for the travel industry

In recent years, the mood in tourism has noticeably changed. While 2023 was considered the year of slow recovery after the Corona crisis, the booking figures for 2024 show a clear return to normality. Germany recorded an increase in vacation trips from 65 million in the previous year to 71 million. According to Euromonitor, this positive development also becomes globally visible: In 2024, estimated $ 4.7 trillion in international holiday and business travel were implemented with a forecast of around $ 5 trillion for $ 2025. Despite the challenges such as inflation, there is a high level of travel trips to many households.

This dynamic market development also brings changes. Digitization and artificial intelligence are central topics that will shape the industry in the future. Currently, 66 % of all travel bookings are already being made online, and an increase to over 70 % is forecast by 2027. This presents traditional business models of travel agencies and organizers with immense challenges. While the integration of AI in booking processes has already been completed in a third of the company, many are still in the test phase. In 2025, the travel industry sees itself from imponderables that could result from new technologies and geopolitical factors.