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INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL SPENDING SET TO DOUBLE IN 2022

A silver lining on the tourism horizon has been revealed by a new Trip.com Group and WTTC report “Trending in Travel”. According to the study, international travel spending is expected to grow by 94% in 2022. The report also highlights the increasing demand for sustainability.

The report provides an outlook on the shift in traveller’s behaviour and future booking trends in a post-pandemic world. For this, WTTC joined forces with China-based global travel service provider, Trip.com Group, to analyse consumer trends shaping the travel recovery.

WTTC’s latest projections show that international spending is set to overtake domestic spending in 2022, as vaccination rates continue to rise and countries relax restrictions. After an expected rise by 9.3% in 2021, international spending is due to increase by 93.8% in 2022.

Other trends show that travellers are increasingly seeking secondary destinations. According to Trip.com’s hotel booking data, Abu Dhabi (UAE) Chiang Mai (Thailand), Doha (Qatar), Florence (Italy), and Frankfurt (Germany) were the most popular secondary destinations in their respective countries in 2021.

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Brooklyn Bridge – Photo by Gianandrea Villa / Unsplash

The forced pause in travel in 2020 and 2021 also heightened consumers’ eagerness to travel more sustainably. More than eight out of 10 (83%) global travellers indicate they will make sustainable travel a priority in the future.

According to the report, 70% of travellers in many major countries such as the US, Spain, the UK, Canada, and Japan plan to spend more on travel in 2022 than they have in the past five years, including 2019, one of the best years on record for the tourism sector.

Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, said: “After almost two years without being able to travel freely, consumers are eager to explore, but they are aware of the impact their travel habits have on the world, and their preferences, needs and demands have changed. As the sector adapts to these emerging trends, sustainability must remain front and centre of everything we do.”

Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, added: “We see a huge amount of pent-up demand steadily being released. To better evolve with the recovery, we must understand travellers, and as an industry adapt to emerging trends.”

Photo – top of page: Tourists at Arc de Triomph, Paris – by Mika Baumeister / Unsplash

Read also: WTTC: BUSINESS TRAVEL SET TO REACH 2/3 OF PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS BY 2022

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