Travel and Tourism Industry Report 2021 - Tourism after COVID – will there be a new normal?

The travel and tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industry. This industry promotes economic growth, job creation, social development, and peace. Hundreds of millions of people around the world rely on this sector for a living.

This industry has created a massive opportunity for travel and tourism-related businesses such as travel agencies, tour operators, vacation rentals and so on to meet the needs of the growing demand.

In 2020, 62mn jobs were lost, leaving just 272mn employed across the sector globally. This 18.5% decrease was felt across the entire Travel & Tourism ecosystem, with Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), which make up 80% of all global businesses in the sector, being particularly affected.

While the entire travel industry has been hard-hit by COVID-19, some sectors have felt more impact than others. Airlines and cruises are among the hardest hit, while vacation rentals and online travel agencies have fared relatively better.

The crisis is being viewed as an immense opportunity to improve the industry in the medium and long term through greater digitalization and environmental sustainability. The UNWTO has encouraged to support for worker training in order to build digital skills for harnessing the value of big data, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.

AIR LINE INDUSTRY : The 2008 global financial crisis, which was only purely economic and weakened spending power but COVID-19 has changed consumer behavior—and the airline sector—irretrievably.

The airline sector is one of the hardest hit, despite government support. Most airlines are consistently reporting losses, and some have become insolvent. Air travel is not expected to reach pre-COVID-19 levels globally until 2024, though a faster recovery is possible in Asia.

Business travel will take longer to recover, and even then, it is estimated that around 80 percent will be normal by the end of 2024.

Initially, the air fares will remain low as airlines struggle to fill up planes. But in the long term, decreased competition, the burden of paying back government loans, and potential health-related operational measures could push prices up.

The travel industry has completely accepted the change bought by COVID – 19 and these are few trends which people like to adhere to :

The rise of Domestic Tourism and Staycation
Safety and Cleanliness
Promotion of Sustainable or Eco-Friendly Tourism
Vaccinations and vaccinated staffs

Sustainable tourism is the form of tourism that meets the needs of tourists, the tourism industry, and host communities today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

According to a survey by Booking.com, 61% of travelers state that the pandemic has made them want to travel more sustainably in the future, with biggest concerns including waste, wildlife, overcrowding and carbon emissions.

Some of the key players in travel industry are :

AIRBNB
BOOKING HOLDINGS
EXPEDIA GROUP
TRIP ADVISOR

The IMF forecasted a growth of 6% in 2021. The return of air travel demand to 2019 levels will not occur until 2024. In 2023, APAC will lead the recovery, followed by the United States and Europe.

For details on Regional analysis and Industry analysis please feel free to refer to the following Travel and tourism Industry report from CrispIdea: