Outside investors into the travel industry still believe that the sector has more structural deficits than others.

That is the message put forward today by a panel at ITB Berlin 2025.

The panel, ‘Capital Markets Meets Tourism: How Investors Are Shaping the Future of the Industry’, said that while industry growth remains high, the inflow of investments to match it has not happened.

The initial presentation was given by Jan-Frederick Valentin, general partner at Ennea Capital Partners. He said that while tourism accounts of roughly 10% of global GDP, it picks up only about 5% of the investment capital available.

Valentin said: “It’s a sector that investors look upon as being highly cyclical and often beset by political crises. Many banks do have issues in lending money for deals.”

He added: “What we see a lot of the time is that neither the market, nor its drivers, is fully understood. It’s also common that a lot of the accounting is not in the right place. I’ve seen a lot of deals fail because of this.”

There was also some discussion about Germany as a destination for investment, with the panel saying that there was some movement towards firms looking for buyout as their principals grew closer to retirement. There was also talk of how AI would impact future industry, with many saying that investment would be needed to get over this hill.

Others took on slightly differing views. Morgann Lesné, partner at Cambon Partners, said that he saw the travel sector as a growing industry with occasional bumps in the road.

Lesné went on to advise those seeking to make their fortune with a tourism-related start-up to avoid investors for as long as they could.

He added: “One mistake that people make is to try and go for fundraising at too early a stage. While this is a big industry, it’s still a competitive space. My advice is to not avoid investors or financial advisers – but know how to approach them when it is the right time.”