PERTH, Australia — The term “normalization” is increasingly being used to describe a slowdown in travel growth from the highest levels experienced by the travel industry as the pandemic began to subside.
And while some members of the travel industry who took to the stage at the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Global Summit focused on the downturn in the travel industry, others said the travel industry remains in turmoil and is not growing. He said there was.
Greg O’Hara, founder and managing director of Sertares and chairman of WTTC, is among industry leaders who say travel growth is normalizing, although it remains at an enviable level.
“We could never keep up with that growth,” O’Hara said of the boom. “We don’t even have enough hotel rooms or airplane slots to continue that growth. It’s normalized to a level that most industries would consider envious.”
He added: “By 2024, our sector is expected to account for 10% of the global economy and employ one in ten people on the planet.”
When the panel’s moderator, Travel Weekly Editor-in-Chief Ernie Wiseman, said the most common phrase he heard on quarterly earnings calls this year was “travel companies have returned to normal,” American Express Travel President Audrey Hendry said that’s not the case. I don’t think that travel itself has “slowed down.”
For example, the American Express Hotel Collection needs to add 300 properties this year alone, she said, adding, “This is an increase in the number of properties added in any given year based solely on pure demand and changes in customer behavior. much more than that.”
“I think what happened is that we all probably got into the same lane and figured out how to best serve each individual customer,” she said. “For us, it’s trying to understand newer customers. Our fastest growing segments are Millennials and Gen Z, and that’s been the case for the past few years. It pushed us into new territory.”
Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton also suggested during the same panel that business growth has not yet begun to slow.
He said many travelers appreciate Intrepid’s focus on sustainability, which has been a factor in Intrepid’s record revenue through the pandemic.
“We’re in a very fortunate situation in that people seem to want experiences and want to buy from truly sustainable companies,” he said. “That’s why we’re working diligently with our partners to limit our environmental impact and benefit local communities. With that approach, we have a very important runway for growth. I think it’s going to be a thing.” That’s what we’re experiencing.
In a presentation on global travel demand, Olivier Ponty, director of intelligence and marketing at ForwardKeys, said that although US growth has slowed, it remains very strong and is “stimulating travel demand around the world. “There is,” he said.
“It won’t be indefinite, but the U.S. market is so large that we think this demand will continue,” he said.
But it softened.
“It’s slowing down,” he said. “Yes, we are still seeing an increase, but not at the level of increase we saw in the early stages of post-COVID travel.”
Ponti said there was no significant travel impact from the U.S. in the upcoming U.S. election either.
“The United States has been in growth mode for some time now,” he said. “Betting on the U.S. and Canadian markets will pay off.”
