Business Travel
Trends For Travel And Hospitality: 5 In 2022
Forecasting the future isn’t easy at the best of times. To add to that, the travel and hospitality industry has been one of the most transformed by the covid pandemic. It continues to shape the way we travel and do business, but the situation appears finally to be stabilising around the world. Travel and hospitality trends are evolving.
Now, pockets of built-up demand and the fallout from pandemic-drive lifestyles point to several key travel and hospitality trends as the industry gears up for the summer.
Read on as we share five of our travel and hospitality trends for 2022.
Data-Driven Businesses To Thrive in Travel and Hospitality
A recent report entitled Global Vacation Rental Report 2022 from Transparent and Rentals United, which surveyed property managers from around the world, returned some significant, but unsurprising, findings related to data.
Revenue growth from bookings is far higher for those companies that invest in data versus those that don’t. Overall, growth was four times higher for property managers spending on data in 2021. Those who invested more than $10,000 a year in data and related technology saw a massive 66% revenue growth from bookings.
The report also finds that property managers who use market and industry data to frequently update rates saw a 51% revenue increase from bookings compared to -10% for those that opted to update on a yearly basis.
Of the property managers surveyed, 29% said that demand is already exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
Data also enables property managers to be more agile, reacting in real-time with new strategies to developing trends.
For example, if the property notices a drop in demand for international flights coinciding with a rise in covid cases around the world, they can choose to focus resources that are centred around vacations closer to home, creating better packages and marketing for domestic travel.
Cities Are Back As London Leads The Way as a Key Travel and Hospitality Trend
City travel is back with a bang. After more than two years of avoiding densely populated urban centres, the data now suggests that travellers are eager to return to their favourite metropolises.
The UK and other major cities in Europe ditching mask mandates is a major contributing factor, as bookings for European destinations like Paris and London are spiking. People are keen to reconnect with their favourite cities in a slightly less dystopian setting.
Paris and London top internationally searched destinations on the US-based Scott’s Cheap Flights website, a service that sends alerts for travel deals. Since the beginning of the year, searches on Expedia for London jumped 62%, while searches for Paris rose 51%.
At the same time, the mobile app Hopper reported that London and Paris rank as two of the most searched international destinations so far this year.
Reunions With Friends & Family
People are choosing 2022 to make up for lost time with loved ones, making the most of present opportunities to catch up or celebrate missed milestones. Family or friend reunion style vacations are expected to be increasingly popular this year.
Research by travel insurance provider ABTA revealed that “the desire to be together and reconnect is leading to a rise in larger group bookings, particularly multigenerational travel.”
- easyJet holidays said that 25% of customers will be prioritising going away with their extended family
- 61% of people who travelled in the last year said they went to see family and friends. This is compared to just 25% for 2019.
We expect to see a continuation of this trend for at least the remainder of 2022. Companies that focus on family-friendly accommodation and packages are the most likely to benefit from this trend.
Sustainability Continues To Play Key Role
Sustainable travel and accommodation have been a growing trend for over a decade. Since 2011, the number of travellers who say that the green credentials of their vacations are important to them has nearly tripled.
People are aware that climate change is a more threatening global emergency than even covid. As such, the travel and hospitality industry will increasingly need to seek out the most sustainable options to meet consumer expectations.
The European Travel Commission recently published their handbook on Sustainable Tourism Practices, with several key insights on consumer attitudes:
- 94% of respondents said that protecting the environment is important to them personally, including over half (53%) who said that it is very important
- 46% of respondents said that waste management was the most important environmental issue
- Respondents said that ‘changing the way we consume’ (33%) and ‘changing the way we produce and trade’ (31%) were the most effective ways of tackling environmental problems
- Respondents were also in favour of other measures such as encouraging businesses to engage in sustainable activities (23%) and tighter legislative controls (23%)
Travellers will be looking to companies with initiative in this regard, from plastic-free options – where possible – to the eradication of single-use plastics from items such as toiletries. Brands such as ours must continue to go above and beyond to address these points of concern.
Longer Stays
Prior to the pandemic, weekend getaways were some of the most popular types of vacations. Now, a GlobalData poll showed that longer trips are becoming the norm, with 44% of travellers booking trips of at least seven nights, and 26% opting for stays of 10 nights or longer.
According to Airbnb’s Q3 filings, stays of 28 days or longer are the company’s fastest-growing stay length, up 14% from the same quarter the year prior, and accounting for 20% of all nights booked through the company in that quarter.
Part of the reason for this is the change in working habits since the covid-19 pandemic. The hybrid working model has given people the freedom and flexibility to live and work while travelling the globe, an option that is more appealing than ever to large portions of our populations.
These key travel and hospitality trends will define the way people book and experience travel for this year and beyond. One common theme shared between all these trends is that property companies and professionals who manage to stay on top of these travel and hospitality trends will be the ones to forge ahead into the new era of travel, while those that don’t risk falling by the wayside.
If you’d like to chat with us about any of our properties or about our sustainability practices, don’t hesitate to contact us!