pandemic
Business Travel Set to Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels to Reach a Record US$1.5 Trillion in 2024
The World Travel & Tourism Council | October 11, 2024
Perth, Australia: A new report from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed that business travel is set to surpass pre-pandemic levels this year, faster than previously predicted, to reach a record US$1.5TN. The rise of remote working during the pandemic had a disproportionate effect on corporate travel, compared to leisure travel, with virtual platforms replacing face-to-face meetings. Last year, leisure travel was just 2.9% behind the 2019 peak, whilst business travel continued to struggle, remaining 5.4% behind. But as business leaders re-emphasised the importance of face-to-face interaction, business travel is ...
WTTC Reveals Pandemic’s Heavy Toll on Women and Youth in Travel & Tourism Jobs
The World Travel & Tourism Council | September 23, 2024
Belem, Brazil: The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), in collaboration with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism, today launched a new report revealing the stark impact of the pandemic on woman and youth employment within the global Travel & Tourism sector. Almost 70 million people working in Travel & Tourism lost their jobs during the pandemic, but women and young people were disproportionately impacted because their roles were more likely to be in the worst affected areas such as hospitality and food services. While the sector has broadly seen a strong recovery, the ‘Social Trends in Travel & T...
Travel Trouble: Florida Tourism Slowing Amid Recession Fears, Robust Competition
Florida Atlantic University | June 23, 2022
BOCA RATON, Fla. (June 23, 2022) – Florida leisure travel is showing signs of decline in recent weeks, offering yet another challenge to employers and tourism officials still trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. After the Sunshine State’s tourism enjoyed a big bounce-back year in 2021, domestic and international travelers here now are finding discounts and blocks of availability in some markets. That usually doesn’t happen until the historically slow periods of August and September, said Peter Ricci, Ed.D., director of Florida Atlantic University’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program in the College of Business. ...
Tourism Tidbits: Returning a Sense of Fascination to Travel and Tourism
Peter Tarlow | December 6, 2021
By Dr. Peter Tarlow These last two years have not been easy. Tourism professionals have seen tourism industries that just a few years ago were highly successful now needing to fight for their survival. Certainly, world pandemics play a major role in this decline. It would be, however, a mistake to blame all of the industry’s problems solely on the pandemic. Careful observers of the travel and tourism scene were already noting potential problems, from poor customer service to over-tourism just a mere 24 months ago. Often a reason cited for this decline is the high price of airline tickets and the fact that businesses had begun to...
Global Hotel Performance Moderates With Summer’s Close
HotStats | October 28, 2021
The cold hard truth is arriving with the chillier weather: global hotel performance has a ways to go before it's back to its former self. In the U.S., there is, however, cause for optimism. First, COVID case count: According to The Washington Post, new coronavirus infections in the country have dropped nearly 60 percent since a September spike due to the Delta variant. The seven-day average is also down some 58% since a mid-September infection peak. Coupled with a decreasing case count is the recent Biden administration decision to lift COVID-19 travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international visitors beginning November 8, a ...
A Small Hotel on the Frontlines With the Delta Variant
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | August 11, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky The delta variant is slowly but inevitably absorbing the news cycle heading into Autumn 2021 as cases swell across the world and governments take pre-emptive measures to stop a fourth wave of COVID-19 from triggering another round of economically harmful lockdowns. Even though all of us yearn for this pandemic to be over, sadly we’re still very much in uncharted water. Given this uncertainty, all hoteliers can really do is react and pivot as quickly as possible. Here is one such case study we’ve been authorized to report upon so that you can see how a small hotel handles the situation on the ground and i...
The Post-Pandemic Hard Reset
Vikram Singh | July 13, 2021
By Vikram Singh I wrote two articles during the pandemic, one around the beginning and one in the middle. It’s time to complete the trilogy. Our industry has been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fundamentally change itself. How we market, price and operate hotel assets needs to evolve to meet the changing market landscape. Here are my thoughts on how to make real changes in order to embrace the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead. Embrace the Hard Reset The hotel and travel industry was ground zero for the impact of global lockdowns: the hard reset button on the entire industry was pressed. A hard reset on an electronic ...
Global Economy Could Lose Over $4 Trillion Due to Covid-19 Impact on Tourism
UNWTO | June 30, 2021
Economic losses are mounting in developing countries due to the absence of widespread COVID-19 vaccinations. The crash in international tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic could cause a loss of more than $4 trillion to the global GDP for the years 2020 and 2021, according to an UNCTAD report published on 30 June. The estimated loss has been caused by the pandemic’s direct impact on tourism and its ripple effect on other sectors closely linked to it. The report, jointly presented with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), says international tourism and its closely linked sectors suffered an estimated loss of $2.4 trillion i...
