The pandemic largely put the brakes on travel in 2020, but the travel industry saw performance and demand improving steadily throughout 2021 and 2022. According to Deloitte’s latest Travel Industry Outlook, hotels have been able to achieve rates and revenue per available room above 2019 levels.
The industry has had some time to recover thanks to pent-up demand in 2022. This year, it will likely be “coming to grips with some complicated realities facing travel” like pricing, according to Deloitte.
Booking on a budget: Deloitte data showed increasing intent among consumers to book travel in 2021 compared to the year prior, but September 2022 marked an end to the trend. November brought some improvement, but “remained close to flat, following a summer of big gains.”
- Almost half (46%) of consumers surveyed said they planned to travel this past summer.
- Just 31% said they planned to travel over the holiday season.
- Among those who said they planned to stay home for the holidays, “financial concerns” were the most commonly cited reason for doing so.
Business travel: The rebound of business travel might also be slowed by financial factors even though “conditions do not indicate that corporate travel volume will snap back to pre-pandemic levels,” the report still predicts “significant gains.”
- Industry events might be a big reason why; conferences, exhibitions, or trade shows were the top reasons for business travel last year, followed by building client relationships and other client work.
The report is based on Deloitte’s ongoing consumer research, including from Deloitte’s State of the Consumer Tracker.
“If 2022 was the year of welcomed pent-up demand, 2023 will be a year of coming to grips with some complicated realities facing travel. The year ahead in travel will be defined by the basics — product, performance and price — in the context of economies and societies reshaping themselves on the way of a once-in-a-generation crisis,” the study said.
Overall, the travel sector moves from a year of return and resurgence into a period of recalibration and repositioning.