Air capacity is well over 100% of 2023 volumes across all regions, demonstrating increased opportunities for travel
January 24, 2024 – A new report released today by Amadeus in collaboration with UN Tourism shows a positive trend for air travel and hospitality in the Americas at the start of 2024.
Air capacity has increased significantly for January to April 2024
The report – Travel Insights 2024: Focus on the Americas – finds the industry is prepared for a strong start to the year, with air capacity in the region up by 20% over the first four months of the year when compared to the same period of 2023.
Released today, the report draws on Amadeus’ global travel data to provide a comprehensive overview of forward-looking travel industry insights. It takes a deeper look at the Americas to help destinations and travel providers better comprehend travel performance and insights into travelers seeking to travel to the region.
These insights can help destinations to anticipate shifts in traveler patterns and trends, ultimately creating strategies that capture more traveler interest to support tourism and economic growth for their destination.
North America takes center stage of top searched destinations across the region – with New York, Cancun and Los Angeles in the lead
For the Americas, the report notes that as of January 8, 2024, Amadeus Search and Booking Analytics shows North America capturing the greatest volume of activity across the subregions with New York, Cancun, and Los Angeles leading the list of top searched destinations.
Additionally, as of January 8, 2024, Amadeus’ Demand360+® data shows hotel demand remains strong across North America with forward-looking occupancy in each of the first four months of the year on par with 2023 occupancy for the same time period, even in the context of shorter booking lead times with 51% of hotel reservations being made within a week of travel.
Argentina emerges as strong outbound market as searches to the US more than double while the Caribbean, Central and South America all continue to see strong interest from the US
In addition to detailing performance across each of the Americas’ four subregions, North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, the report looks into traveler behaviors by origin market. Using Amadeus data on available air capacity to each region also provides context of how many travelers could enter each destination along with the best window of time to capture interest as they are planning and booking trips. Putting these details together allows destinations to gain a better understanding of global travel movement, how regions and markets are performing, and how to capture opportunities ahead.
Looking at demand for the four regions:
The top three markets searching for travel to the US are domestic travel, followed by Canada and the UK. It’s also interesting to note that Argentina is growing in importance as a key origin market for US travel with a 159% increase in year-over-year search volumes.
The USA is the top country of origin exploring travel to South and Central America as well as to the Caribbean by a significant margin, with cities such as New York, LA and Toronto leading the searches. Europe is also a key origin region, with Spain and Germany in the top three countries searching for South and Central America respectively.
Hotel occupancy on par with 2023 with shorter lead times, with the Caribbean in the lead
Hotel occupancy performance in the Americas is closely aligned with 2023 with small differences among subregions.
Booking lead times continue to be shorter than in 2023, giving hoteliers the opportunity to modify their strategies to capture more hotel bookings closer to the date of arrival. With a longer booking lead time window, Amadeus’ Demand360+® data shows hotel occupancy in the Caribbean is trending ahead of the other three subregions for the first four months of 2024.
Sharing deep insight into industry trends through industry collaboration
“The competitiveness of our sector increasingly depends on the availability and analysis of market data,” says Zurab Pololikashvili, UN Tourism Secretary-General. “At UN Tourism we are committed to strengthening the ability of our members to access relevant market intelligence by creating tools that allow them to better plan and manage tourism development. That is why we are pleased that this report has been delivered together with Amadeus, one of our key Affiliate Members in the region, and we trust that this initiative can be replicated in other regions.”
Francisco Pérez-Lozao Rüter, President, Hospitality, Amadeus adds, “Access to insights across the global travel ecosystem provides a new perspective into traveler behaviors. We are excited to partner with UN Tourism – enabling destinations and travel providers alike to plan for the future. The past few years have accelerated the adoption of technology to make the experience of travel better, smoother, and faster, creating greater accessibility and opportunity to connect the world.”
The full Travel Insights 2024: Focus on the Americas report is now available for download, highlighting the full scope of travel trends across air search, booking, capacity and traffic forecast based on insights from Amadeus Search Analytics, Amadeus Booking Analytics, Amadeus Schedule Analytics and Amadeus Air Traffic Forecast solutions. The report also contains data on hotel occupancy and booking lead time insights from Amadeus’ Demand360+®, which provides a comprehensive overview of market insights from more than 41,000 hotel properties globally.
