At ITB Berlin 2026, the 60th anniversary of the world's leading travel trade show, decision-makers meet under the convention theme “Leading Tourism into Balance”.
The idea of balance reflects a structural tension that has accompanied the industry for years: record travel demand, fragile operational stability and complaint management as an underestimated measure of how well companies balance the two.
Figures the industry cannot ignore
More than 45,000 complaints reached Schlichtungsstelle Reise & Verkehr in 2024, around 14.5 percent more than the previous year and more than ever before. The main drivers were a combination of external disruptions: strikes, extreme weather and a global IT outage involving CrowdStrike.
In 2025, complaints stabilised at around 42,000 new applications, the second-highest figure since the dispute resolution body's founding in 2009. The slight decline is attributed to the absence of widespread IT outages and major strike waves, and improved processes at some transport providers.
Travel exposes weaknesses in the system
Travel is particularly useful for discussions across industries because external disruptions and internal process weaknesses meet in real time, directly affecting customers and under public scrutiny.
For 2026, the dispute resolution body forecasts complaint volumes similar to the previous year, provided no new external crises occur. The spring rail situation is a particular uncertainty.
Stable periods improve the statistics but do not remove structural vulnerability. Companies that build complaint management solely as a reactive tool face renewed pressure at the next disruption.
Airlines, railways and tour operators
Complaints span all three segments. They share the same basic problem: complaint management was designed for normal operations rather than exceptional situations.
Air travel accounts for around 83 percent of dispute resolution applications. Cancellations, delays and short-notice schedule changes dominate, often triggered by external events without a sufficiently scalable internal response.
Rail follows at around 15 percent. Cancellations, delays and missed connections, particularly during strikes, generate volumes that regularly overwhelm traditional service structures. Rail remains a particular uncertainty in 2026.
Tour operators account for around 1.3 percent. Yet 531 new applications in 2025 compared with 156 in 2024 represent more than a threefold increase. Many operators are not yet legally required to participate in dispute resolution, so actual complaint volumes are likely structurally underestimated.
Source: Schlichtungsstelle Reise & Verkehr.
ITB 2026: What makes this year different
ITB Berlin 2026 focuses on resilient business models and current trends under “Leading Tourism into Balance”. The industry discusses resilience as a strategic principle because it has learned what happens without it.
On one day in July 2024, up to 72 percent of German passengers faced delays due to severe weather. This illustrates what happens when peak demand, external crisis and insufficient process capacity coincide.
For companies outside travel, the transferable question is: what would be the equivalent “72-percent day” for your service model, and what would happen to your customer contacts?
Complaint management as an early indicator
A structural deficit exposed by travel is that complaints are often recorded systematically only once they have escalated, on their way to dispute resolution or court.
In 2024, passengers filed around 131,000 lawsuits at German local courts near the 20 largest airports, around 6,000 more than the previous year. These figures reflect internal complaint management that failed or did not exist. Each lawsuit represents an unresolved complaint that might have been addressed earlier.
The economic opportunity is substantial. Court proceedings cost many times more than early, direct handling, alongside reputational costs that no balance sheet fully captures.
Key message: A process that responds only to escalation amounts to damage limitation after the event.
What travel companies have improved, and what other industries can learn
Travel has learned under substantial pressure over the past three years. Experts primarily attribute the 2025 decline to stabilised operations and improved processes developed in response to post-pandemic turbulence.
Process improvement under pressure is possible but expensive. It consumes reputation, trust and employee resources precisely when they are scarce. Building complaint management proactively helps avoid this price.
For every industry, this means:
Define priorities and structures in advance. Decide which complaints take priority before a crisis. Customer value, urgency and crisis context need to be embedded in the logic before volume rises.
Use proactive communication to relieve volume. In July 2025, 34.3 percent of German passengers experienced flight disruptions. Early communication reduces incoming complaints because customers do not need to search for information themselves.
Use complaint data to guide decisions. Knowing which regions, segments and touchpoints are disproportionately affected during crises helps allocate capacity deliberately rather than reactively.
Lessons beyond travel
What travel learns under real conditions matters to any company with customers operating in a volatile environment.
With more than 200 sessions, ITB Berlin 2026 focuses on AI, sustainable strategies and resilient business models in response to these questions. Service resilience is an organisational principle.
Companies that understand this build complaint management for the next stress test rather than the average.
Balance begins in service
“Leading Tourism into Balance” describes a challenge beyond travel: balancing growth and stability, expectations and operational reality, response and preparation.
Complaint management is the stress test that every crisis automatically performs.
Crises are a recurring pattern under changing conditions. The question is whether your complaint management scales or collapses when your company faces pressure again.
Service resilience comes from structural preparation. Systematically analysing complaints as early indicators, prioritising them and embedding them in the organisation reduces escalation, protects margins and stabilises trust before it visibly erodes.
The decisive issue is your current capacity: is the system designed for average demand or for peaks?