Two travel companies this week shared new data revealing travellers’ booking plans for late summer, fall and holiday travel that can help travel advisors get a leg up on their business for the remainder of 2022.
Expedia Group: Canadians Booking Last-Minute, International Travel
Canadian travellers are finally making the switch from pandemic-era preferences for domestic travel, back to international travel. Expedia’s research shows that searches for international travel have replaced searches for domestic travel in AUG and SEP this year compared to last year.
The company reports a 235 per cent year on year increase in international accommodation searches for the same months, along with a 70 per cent increase in searches for international flights.
Compared to last summer and fall, booking windows are shrinking, with a 15 per cent increase in one-month search windows.
And Canadian travellers’ appetite for packaged travel is up - with Expedia reporting a 175 per cent increase in bundled travel products in AUG and SEP.
Virtuoso: 2022 Fall Travel Higher than 2019 Levels
The luxury consortium’s data, revealed during Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, tracks the booking and interest data of its agencies’ affluent clients.
According to Virtuoso, both inbound and outbound leisure travel sales are booming, in some cases surpassing 2019 levels, and booking windows have normalized back to pre-pandemic numbers (which explains why it’s so hard to find deals and discounts, it says).
Nearly half of Virtuoso’s clients say they are ready to travel within the next three months. Travel is rebounding, “even in markets where borders only recently opened up,” it says. The U.S. has already outperformed 2019 numbers for 2022 by 122 percent, Australia by 113 percent and Canada – at 80 percent – is quickly catching up.
For SEP - DEC travel, the U.S., Italy, France, Mexico, and Canada are the top 5 destinations, with booking trends “indicative of a strong fall season during which volume will remain above 2019 levels.”
Holiday travel intentions to book, from American Thanksgiving through the New Year, feature island and beach destinations, with booking trends showing Caribbean destinations gaining through the time period. That’s followed by wellness and cruise travel.
The consortium predicts a bright future for travel, with 2023 sales expected to be 47 per cent higher than even pre-pandemic levels.
