Despite the month-long Russia-Ukraine war, the mood remains rather positive amongst travellers who remain firm in their desire to travel (Photo: Harkarn Sachdeva)
A report by IPK International, a global tourism consultancy, says that after a strong growth in the second half of 2021, the mood remains extremely gung ho for the current year and it predicts that outbound travel in the year 2022 will continue to grow strongly.
The report, IPK International’s World Travel Monitor survey on worldwide outbound travel trends in 2021 and travel intentions for 2022, will be presented by ITB Berlin.
It says that in 2021, despite lockdowns and tight travel restrictions, outbound travel increased worldwide. Strong growth in travel in the second half of the year brought the upturn in international tourism. However, the report points out that trends varied rather sharply around the world and in the individual travel segments. For instance, outbound travel of the Americans and Europeans saw double-digit growth last year, whereas in Asia it continued to decline, the report says.
In what would cheer to the travel industry, the report says that even after taking into account the continuing uncertainties on the part of the pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine, there is keen demand for holidays and travel in the coming months. Despite the current mood of crisis, the findings of the latest survey point to strong growth and a clear recovery. The mood in travel industry across Europe had been dismal since the outbreak of the war as it led to serious disruptions of cruises and air travel between Russia and Europe and United States.
The report says that outbound travel grew by 3 pc in 2021 over the previous year, which is fairly creditable taking into account border closures that had cut off most countries as well as continued waves of pandemic in various countries. But across the world the growth was quite divergent. For instance, in Europe and in America, outbound travel increased year-on-year by 10 and 11 pc respectively, while it collapsed by 40 pc in Asia. Despite this, on a global level, the record lows in global tourism were overcome, while the post-Covid recovery began, says the IPK report.
It adds that holiday travel grew 4 pc, though business travel fell 14 pc in the year, its second year of decline since the pandemic began in 2020. The growth in demand last year was mainly for sun and beach holidays, which rose 30 pc on the previous year. Destinations such as Spain, Italy and Greece registered above-average, double-digit growth and compared with last year, both the average duration of a trip and amount of money spent increased, says the report.
The report also highlights the sharp rise in digitalisation of travel, since due to pandemic people want more comprehensive and easily obtainable travel and holiday information. Close to 75 pc of travellers consider digital services to be highly relevant, such as being able to book hotels, flights, events as well as visits to virtual attractions for example. The same applies to a comprehensive online presence and online bookability of destinations. Being able to use an app to book tickets, attractions and museums and use digital payment methods is also high on the priority list of outbound travellers.
A promising outlook for 2022
The survey says that 80 pc of respondents are keen to travel this year, despite the uncertainties over Omicron and the Ukraine crisis. Pointedly, it says that in Europe, outbound travel intentions have remained stable, at almost 90 pc of pre-pandemic levels, while in America they have reached now almost 75 pc, and in Asia 66 pc. Globally, source markets with a high potential for outbound travel are mainly Germany, the UK, the USA, France and the Netherlands.
Around the world, this year’s preferred destinations are Italy, Spain and Germany, followed by France and the USA in fourth and fifth place. Although destinations on the same continent continue to be the favourites, overseas travel to Europe is in demand especially among Americans and Asians.
While holiday trips continue to be in high demand, interest in business travel over the coming months is stable too. In terms of holiday types people are planning, sun & beach holidays remain by far the most popular also this year, followed by city breaks (on an upward trend), round trips and holidays close to nature. It goes on to say that outbound travel could already reach 50 to 60 pc of pre-pandemic levels this year. By 2024 at the latest, outbound travel volumes can be expected to be level with 2019.
