The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and its partner ForwardKeys, foresee a surge in global international flight bookings as international travel takes off.
News of the strong recovery highlights a promising prospect ahead for summer holiday travel, with destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America leading the international inbound bookings. According to the travel and analytics company, ForwardKeys, destinations in the Americas that are expected to rank among the top 20 include Costa Rica, Aruba, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. These destinations lead the pack with bookings already exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
Last year, the industry’s gradual recovery was significantly hindered by the surge in Omicron cases; however, the future is looking brighter for 2022 with positive booking data worldwide. Julia Simpson, WTTC president and CEO said, “WTTC 2022 booking data from ForwardKeys is a firm signal of the strong recovery of the global Travel & Tourism sector.
“Travel to the Asia-Pacific region shows impressive signs of improvement as destinations gradually reopen their borders to visitors, in line with customer demand.”
According to the data, Q1 and Q2 figures for this year are showing triple-digit growth for inbound flight bookings around the world, compared to last year, including the Americas, Europe and Asia. Travelers are eager to spend more following the easing of restrictions, with heightened demand for premium cabin classes in 2022. Other trends seen include stronger last-minute bookings. Further evidence of the resurgence in travel is shown in arrivals in Europe, with a 350 percent surge in international arrivals for Q1 in 2022 compared to last year. Asia-Pacific countries also saw an increase in arrivals for Q1 of this year compared to 2021, with bookings for the region up 275 percent.
In Q2, there is further acceleration of the continuing recovery with a significant rise in international bookings, which have soared by 264 percent on the year before. This acceleration is particularly notable in Asia where travel restrictions are being lifted. The Philippines is the fastest growing single destination in South East Asia, 29 percent up in Q2 this year compared to Q1.
The summer travel outlook is led by the resurgence of travel to the Caribbean and Latin America, which includes seven out of the top 10 travel destinations. India and Pakistan are also popular, thanks to travel mainly for visits to family and friends. Meanwhile in Europe, destinations such as Iceland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and France show a strong resurgence with travel bookings just slightly below pre-pandemic levels. Africa and the Middle East also appear in the top 20 list with Tanzania, Qatar and Egypt also reaching close to pre-pandemic levels of travel.
The continued recovery of the travel and tourism sector in the Asia-Pacific region looks set to accelerate as destinations gradually reopen throughout 2022.
For more information, visit www.wttc.org.
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