The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and travel and analytics company ForwardKeys have together forecast a major increase in global international flight bookings as international travel takes off.
News of the strong recovery highlights a promising prospect ahead for summer holiday travel, with destinations like the Caribbean and Latin America leading the international inbound bookings.
The booking bounce-back was revealed at WTTC’s 21st Global Summit, which took place in Manila, Philippines last month.
According to ForwardKeys, the countries leading the ranking of top 20 best performing destinations are Costa Rica, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, all of which rely heavily upon international travel. These destinations lead with bookings already surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
Africa and the Middle East also feature in the top 20 list with Tanzania, Qatar and Egypt reaching close to pre-pandemic levels of travel.
Last year, the industry’s gradual recovery was significantly slowed by the surge in Omicron cases. However, the future is looking brighter for 2022 with positive booking data worldwide.
According to the data, Q1 and Q2 figures for this year are showing substantial growth for inbound flight bookings around the world, compared to last year, including the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO says: “WTTC 2022 booking data from ForwardKeys is a firm signal of the strong recovery of the global Travel & Tourism sector. Travel to the Asia-Pacific region shows impressive signs of improvement as destinations gradually reopen their borders to visitors, in line with customer demand.”
Travellers are eager to spend more on travel following the loosening of restrictions, with heightened demand for premium cabin classes in 2022. Other trends seen include stronger last-minute bookings.
Further evidence of the resurgence in travel is shown in arrivals in Europe, with a massive 350% surge in international arrivals for Q1 in 2022 compared to last year.
Asia-Pacific countries also saw an increase in arrivals for Q1 of this year compared to 2021, with bookings for the region up 275%.
In Q2 we see further acceleration of the continuing recovery with a significant rise in international bookings, which have soared by 264% on the year before.
Host to the WTTC Global Summit, the Philippines is the fastest-growing single destination in southeast Asia, 29% up in Q2 this year compared to Q1.
Olivier Ponti, ForwardKeys VP Insights, says: “It is very encouraging that Asia has finally begun re-opening, which is driving the return of both travel to Asia and within the region, both of which are clearly going to be instrumental in driving the global economic recovery.”
The summer travel outlook is led by the resurgence of travel to the Caribbean and Latin America, which includes seven out of the top 10 travel destinations.
India and Pakistan are also highly popular, thanks to travel mainly for visits to family and friends.
Meanwhile in Europe, Greece, Portugal, Spain and France are showing a strong resurgence with travel bookings just slightly behind pre-pandemic levels.
