The U.S travel sector took a blow from Omicron during the holiday season, but the effect was mild. In December, 45% of Americans traveled, only 2 percentage points lower than September, when Delta was in retreat. In particular, nearly 6% of all December trips were to another country, marking the highest rate since the pandemic started. And looking ahead to 2022, Americans are optimistic about traveling more.
Destination marketers have put up a positive outlook for 2022 aiming for diversified funding and revenue sources along with some crucial internal changes focusing on stakeholder engagement, targeted marketing and sustainability initiatives. It is to be seen if the changes contribute to continual recovery and growth.
Around the world in 11 online travel agencies. Use our 2022 Online Travel Agency Factbook to compare the performance of booking sites from across five continents.
Sophisticated revenue management systems will undoubtedly become more commonplace in the hotel industry, but today still only a small minority of hotels use them. There is a lot of room left for growth, innovation, and disruption.
With 2022 on the horizon, the travel recovery has begun in earnest. Brands are competing to win returning consumers but may find that old habits and preferences have evolved.
This is the most complete vendor landscape and market sizing for the hotel property management system sector. With annual revenues of $4.5 billion, this is the largest hotel tech category, but it is also extremely fragmented. There is a lot to fight for.
Mobile is already the primary device for travel planning in the majority of the world. But for most of the travel sectors and companies, mobile bookings are yet to surpass desktop bookings in volume or value. Undoubtedly, the travel companies need to increase their mobile investment to capitalize on this shift, but, at the same time they need to have an overarching multi-device strategy in place to engage with the customer throughout.
The Delta variant didn’t do too much damage to the U.S. travel industry. In September, 47% of Americans traveled, only 1.7 percentage points lower than the record-setting July. And luckily, the virus is in retreat and the upcoming winter holiday season looks very promising for travel companies.
Anyone seeking to understand leisure travel overlooks tour operators at their own risk. It is one of the last great offline sectors in the travel industry but that cannot last. Changing consumer behavior and new tech is driving disruption in these businesses, the effects of which have only been compounded by the significant impact of COVID-19.
Most hoteliers would rather not think about their payment tech, as long as it works. But payment habits are changing, and so is payment tech. Hoteliers - and hotel tech vendors and investors - will want to be on top of these changes, especially now that revenues are suppressed.
July did turn out to be a record-breaking month for U.S. travel. However, the Delta Variant has already made some consumers halt their travel plan for the remainder of 2021. How the new surge evolves will deeply impact the fragile recovery path in the next few months.
The Southeast Asian Online travel market is hyper-competitive. The industry players strive to strike a fine balance between creating the appropriate inventory mix, appealing price points, and a seamless user interface with adequate localized features to offer a bespoke product basket and carve out a niche for themselves.
