According to Forecast Analyst Cindy Liu of Forrester, global travel spending is experiencing a surge. It is predicted to return to pre-pandemic levels by year end, blowing past the $2 trillion mark.
What’s Driving The Comeback?
It’s safe to say that international travel is back. There is an increasing demand for leisure travel in both Europe and North America. Additionally, travel demand continues to grow in the Asia Pacific region.
An Uneven Recovery
Although the recovery is strong overall, there are regions that have not fully recovered. These are Italy, Japan, and China.
North America And Europe
The United States is currently the largest market in travel, and is predicted to hold that spot through the 2028 travel season with a total of $566B in spending. Additionally, when it comes to spending, travel is a top priority among consumers in Western Europe. More than ½ of adults in the UK, Spain, Germany, and other Western European nations enjoy travel.
Digital Travel Sales Grow
The digital travel market also continues to dominate. Whether consumers are traveling for business purposes, dating international people, or leisure, they are booking online. Here, the UK dominates with the highest share of online travel sales.
Online travel agencies are benefitting from this through increased market share. The top seven online travel agencies (ota) made up almost 46% of online travel spending in 2023. This growth is predicted to continue. OTAs are able to pivot quickly in response to market changes, including cutting spending where needed. This allowed many of these companies to weather the storm during the pandemic, and to quickly recover once consumers began traveling again.
A Bumpy Road to Recovery in China
China is the largest outbound travel market in the world. As such, people have been paying close attention to its recovery. Currently, outbound tourism is predicted to return to post-covid levels by 2026. This will be driven by visa waiver pacts in specific markets as well as increased air capacity.
One of The Faster Recovering Sectors
As the global economy still recovers from the impacts of covid, the travel market stands out as a success story. Growth in this sector is exceeding expectations, and moving faster than the economy as a whole. Here are some contributing factors:
- Workplace flexibility empowers consumers to travel more
- The growth of the middle class in the Asian countries of Vietnam, India, Philippines, and India
- Greater travel freedom allowing travelers to travel amongst 111 countries without a Visa. This number has doubled in just over 20 years.
Holiday 2024 Travel Trends And Predictions
People are traveling more, and they are traveling internationally. This trend will be highlighted, in particular, during the holiday travel season.
Lower Airfares Are a Motivating Factor
Although seasonal travel costs increase during the holiday seasons, travelers will still benefit from the overall downward trend when it comes to purchasing plane tickets for international destinations.
Higher Earners Are Driving International Travel
Households earning more than 125K annually are largely behind the increase in international travel according to CNBC.
Luxury Brands Are Seeing Growth
During summer 2024, luxury brand hotels outperformed standard and budget competitors this summer. That trend is predicted to continue through the end of this year.
At the same time, budget travelers are not left out of the picture. Many have indicated that they still intend to travel. However, they will be taking advantage of savings strategies such as booking travel in advance or traveling in the off-season.
Travel is Back
It’s clear that post-covid concerns about travel have largely disappeared. Both business and leisure travelers appear to be ready to return to their normal travel plans.
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