With the Omicron variant of Covid-19 pandemic exploding across the globe a number of countries have banned travel or made it very cumbersome, pouring water on the hopes of the global travel industry for the crucial Christmas and New Year vacations. However, there is hope as some experts believe that the industry will register a strong growth in 2022 for the travel sector despite the new variant, travel restrictions and airline cancellations.

Despite the prevailing pandemic and limited travel options, some parts of the world have been seeing booming growth in tourism. For instance, in the third quarter of 2021, tourism in Florida exceeded expectations, reporting more than 32.6 million visitors. This was more than the numbers of the same period in 2019, pre-pandemic times.

This has led some experts to predict a strong revival going forward, notably of overseas visitors coming into the United States. One such person is Bruce Rosenberg, President of HotelPlanner, a hotel booking firm. “Our business has not been affected by Omicron. Omicron is actually seeing a spike for us, so sales are up…We’re seeing a huge rebound,” says Rosenberg.

“As of October, half of US adults said they planned to fly in the next six months, and that survey was taken at the height of the Delta variant. Now that the US has lifted travel restrictions from 33 previously banned countries, millions of inbound travellers will still visit the US in the coming months and years, regardless of the Omicron variant or future variants. Travel confidence should remain high regardless of temporary and localized travel bans due to new Covid variants. In Europe for example, more than half of British adults plan to travel overseas next year, a 46 pc increase compared to this time last year. Despite all the pandemic challenges and uncertainties, the return of global travel in 2022 will have positive ripple effects across the service and hospitality industries around the world,” adds Rosenberg.

Conventional wisdom however says travel is decreasing, though not all of it. In the past few months, weddings, reunions, and more have increased dramatically to the point where many hotels transform lobbies into wedding spaces.

The industry is facing problems such as some workers are refusing to apply for cleaning jobs. Many pilots refuse vaccines. These trends led to staffing shortages, which in turn are causing travellers to run into delays when checking into hotels, a lack of cleaning people, and more new dilemmas.

The travel trade expects that a prolonged period of growth would enable the industry to get back on its feet.