Leisure travel leads recovery; business travel may soon follow: Sabre

Inspite of new surges of Covid-19 in APAC, a new field report by Sabre Hospitality Answers suggests traveller self confidence is returning and highlights strategic themes for hoteliers to seize returning travellers.

The recovery of travel

1. Bookings with ultra-brief home 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.
2. 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.
3. In NAM and LATAM, booking engine transactions exceeded 2019 levels in March, confirming a high demand for leisure travel via direct channel. International travel searches are on the rise as consumers are in the “dreaming” phase for future travel.
4. EMEA market performance is up 7{46dd52bca0123ad67b2d1222819e83fd0a56e45ca5068239f05f0c514f1e20f9} month-on-month driven by direct channel and OTA, fuelled by talks about travel corridors in countries with high vaccination rates.
5. A higher percent of vaccinated people is found in the travelling population than in the general population (13.9{46dd52bca0123ad67b2d1222819e83fd0a56e45ca5068239f05f0c514f1e20f9} vs 5.7{46dd52bca0123ad67b2d1222819e83fd0a56e45ca5068239f05f0c514f1e20f9}), thus monitoring vaccination progress across source markets could point to returning travellers.
6. Business travel may recover sooner and stronger than expected, with 80{46dd52bca0123ad67b2d1222819e83fd0a56e45ca5068239f05f0c514f1e20f9} of companies considering travel or planning travel within 1-3 months.

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.

Key distribution themes for hoteliers

1. 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.
2. Stay Flexible – be ready to adapt to changing market trends when selecting distribution channels and promotional techniques.
3. Do More with Less – Monitor your digital promotions to identify the best performing campaigns and focus resources and funds on those.
4. Prepare for Returning Business Travel – don’t wait until demand returns, get corporate programmes in place to be ready for the inevitable.

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