Leisure Travel Leads Recovery - Business Travel To Follow Soon
A new industry report by Sabre Hospitality Solutions suggests traveller confidence is returning and highlights strategic themes for hoteliers to capture returning travellers.
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The recovery of travel
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- Bookings with ultra-short windows (<7 days) declined for the fifth consecutive month, while longer-term booking windows are increasing at the same pace. This points to a return of traveller confidence to make longer-term plans revolving around travel.
- Despite recent surges of Covid-19, APAC shows the highest rate of consumer confidence on the backs of declining unemployment and talks of easing restrictions to allow internal tourism. APAC bookings are driven by all channels – OTA, GDS, and Booking Engine.
- In NAM and LATAM, booking engine transactions exceeded 2019 levels in March, confirming a high demand for leisure travel via direct channels. International travel searches are on the rise as consumers are in the "dreaming" phase for future travel.
- EMEA market performance is up 7% month-on-month driven by direct channel and OTA, fuelled by talks about travel corridors in countries with high vaccination rates.
- A higher percent of vaccinated people is found in the travelling population than in the general population (13.9% vs 5.7%), thus monitoring vaccination progress across source markets could point to returning travellers.
- Business travel may recover sooner and stronger than expected, with 80% of companies considering travel or planning travel within 1-3 months.
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At its current pace, the world could reach herd immunity before a universal vaccine passport becomes the standard. Hoteliers will likely have to establish their own safety protocols around vaccination-proof, understanding that enforcement will be a nightmare for hotel staff.
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Key distribution themes for hoteliers
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- Focus on the Direct Channel – one of the quickest recovering channels. Utilise digital acquisition campaigns focused on your target audience to raise visibility and awareness of your property.
- Stay Flexible – be ready to adapt to changing market trends when selecting distribution channels and promotional techniques.
- Do More with Less – Monitor your digital promotions to identify the best performing campaigns and focus resources and funds on those.
- Prepare for returning business travel and related business travel services – don’t wait until demand returns, get corporate programmes in place to be ready for the inevitable and make sure to check out this business traveller guide beforehand.
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Article from https://thebusinessjetsetter.weebly.com/blog/leisure-travel-leads-recovery-business-travel-to-follow-soon