Global travel and tourism sector continued to witness weak sentiment for deals as mergers and acquisitions continued to decline in the last quarter of the year 2023, too, says GlobalData, a leading business data analytics company.

According to a press statement by GlobalData, the year 2023 saw announcement of a total of 723 deals involving mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC), registering a decline of 31.9 pc compared to the 1,062 deals announced during the previous year.

The statement adds that an analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database reveals that all the deal types under the coverage witnessed notable decline in volume during 2023 compared to the previous year.

While the volume for M&A deals fell by 32.8 pc, the number of PE and VC deals were down by 40 pc and 27.9 pc, respectively, during 2023 compared to 2022.

“Several factors were at play for the subdued deal activity across several sectors and the travel and tourism sector was not an exception to this global trend.  Notable among these factors include the ongoing geopolitical tensions, conflicts, fears of recession, inflation and interest rate hikes,” says Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData.

North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South and Central America regions recorded decline in deals volume by 42.1 pc, 35.9 pc, 14.2 pc, 23.3 pc and 48.3 pc, respectively, during 2023 compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, deal volume also declined in several leading economies including the US, where it fell by 43.3 pc, the UK by 29.7 pc, China by 10 pc, Japan by 41.8 pc, France by 19.4 pc, South Korea by 20 pc, Australia by 37.1 pc, Spain by 57.9 pc and Canada by 21.1 pc during 2023 compared to 2022, says the statement.