1. Leisure Travel Industry Development Trends under Global Inflation
For consumers, inflation may limit the number of trips, travel budgets, and leisure travel plans. The people most sensitive to inflation tend to be young people because they have not yet accumulated wealth or equity. The least sensitive are those ages 50 to 65, who have invested wisely and have long-term retirement plans in place that are insulated from current market fluctuations. As prices for natural gas, food, and other goods and services continue to rise, record-high oil prices will significantly impact consumers’ travel decisions. Pessimistic consumer sentiment may prompt households to delay tapping excess savings to offset high inflation. Consumers are also starting to look elsewhere for perceived value. For example, abandon long-distance and higher-cost travel in favor of regional and domestic travel. Two- and three-star hotels are becoming more popular, while four- and five-star hotels are becoming less popular. Travelers are also looking for cheaper destinations. At the same time, currency fluctuations can make planning future travel abroad more difficult. Consumers are also now starting to book in advance, which has prompted travel booking platforms to introduce “book now, pay later” options to help travelers spread the cost of their trip. To curb the impact of inflation on the tourism industry, there are several measures that tour operators and activity providers can take. This includes adopting cost-saving strategies, investing in marketing and promotional activities, exploring alternative revenue sources, continuously adapting to changes in consumer behavior, and increasing innovation activities and investments.
2. Driving Factors for Leisure Travel Market
‘Advantages of leisure travel’
The main benefit of leisure travel is that it allows individuals, family, and friends to get out and rest, relax, and rejuvenate. For seniors, leisure travel might include relaxing on a cruise ship, relaxing on the beach, or taking a bus with a lot of other people on a pre-planned trip. For young people, leisure travel means finding adventure, sampling exotic cuisines, and backpacking through Europe, America, Asia, or Australia. This makes traveling even more exciting. Leisure travel is a great way for people to enrich their learning experience about the world around them. When tourists travel to different places, they will be able to better understand the people, background, history, and culture. Visitors will be able to experience first-hand the differences and similarities between them. Leisure travel can promote quality bonding time away from all the stresses of daily life. One of the benefits of leisure travel is that travelers can choose any type of trip they want, giving them more flexibility. For example, travelers can choose from a two-day cruise to a nearby island or a year-long trip around the world. Travelers can also choose to stay in cheap motels or five-star hotels. Overall, these advantages of leisure tourism make it favored by more and more tourists.
3. Factors Challenging the Leisure Travel Market
‘Rising terrorism and crime, political uncertainty’
Most studies show a positive relationship between tourism and crime. Some popular tourist places are prone to major economic crimes such as robbery and burglary. A study conducted by Italian universities showed that for every 1% increase in the number of tourists, the overall crime rate in Italy increased by 0.018%. First, tourists are lucrative targets because they often carry large amounts of money and other valuables. Second, tourists are vulnerable because they are more likely to relax and be caught off guard while on vacation. Also, tourists are generally less likely to report crimes or testify against suspects, avoiding return travel issues. In addition, tourists may be criminals themselves. Tourist areas are characterized by anonymity and high population mobility, enabling criminals to hide themselves. For example, they might cause trouble at sporting events and disrupt airplanes. They may also recruit prostitutes, buy illegal drugs, or smuggle goods out of the country. Some tourist areas are also popular retirement areas, so the potential for crime against seniors is greatly increased. Terrorist targets often include military security forces, places of worship, large public gatherings, and places visited by foreigners. Gatherings of tourists provide opportunities for terrorists to target large crowds. Safety is one of the top concerns for tourists. If certain events destabilize and cause risk perception among tourists, it could have a strong negative impact on travel demand. Authoritarian countries have a depressing effect on tourism demand. The governance of countries often affects travel-related regulations, such as visa and border entry regulations, and paid leave entitlements. Rebellions and protests are prone to stranded tourists. Hence, these factors are expected to negatively impact the leisure travel market.
4. Leisure Travel Industry News
Table Industry News
Item | Description |
EXPEDIA GROUP EXPANDS B2B PORTFOLIO IN ASIA PACIFIC October 4, 2023 | Expedia Group is continuing to accelerate efforts to build its portfolio of B2B partners around the world. At its Explore 23: Connect Asia event Thursday in Singapore, the company announced that it has signed several new travel companies based in Asia Pacific. The company’s three B2B solutions – White Label Template, Rapid API and Optimized Distribution – enable both supply and demand partners to tap into the global travel market. |
Fliggy launches new measures to help overseas merchants effectively reach Chinese customers September 18, 2023 | Fliggy, a leading online travel platform and arm of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA), announced that it will launch new measures providing businesses from around the world with enhanced digital capabilities to maximize growth on its platform. These developments will enable partners to tap into the massive potential of Chinese tourism in a cost effective manner. This announcement, made at the ITB China 2023, comes on the back of a strong post-pandemic rebound in tourism benefitting providers of vacation services such as cruise packages, group travel organizers, tourist attractions, and local entertainment providers, especially if they do not already have a self-operated online platform in China. The new measures include: Online consulting, training courses and other services to assist merchants in the store opening process Full operational support for marketing and order processing available for merchants without these resources, allowing businesses to focus on order fulfilment Access to a range of digital tools specifically for leisure travel merchants helping them increase their operating efficiency, for example automatic updates on visa applications Optimized governance to help merchants better adapt to the digital business platform and subsequently enhance the customer experience Fliggy also plans to launch additional benefits in the near future including zero-cost store-opening before the first transaction, higher levels of rebates and commissions for top-rated merchants and the arrangement of unsecured low-interest loans for small and medium-sized merchants to expand their business. |
Priceline Unveils Trip Intelligence, its Summer 2023 Product Release – A Game-Changing Suite of Tools and Enhancements for Smarter Travel Booking June 28, 2023 | Priceline, a leader in travel planning and booking, today announced the launch of Trip Intelligence, an innovative suite of over 40 booking tools and site enhancements. Informed by Priceline’s latest proprietary traveler research and robust customer data, coupled with new technology and extensive testing, this rich feature set will transform how travelers plan and book their trips. Priceline, part of Booking Holdings Inc. [NASDAQ: BKNG], has been a leader in online travel for twenty-five years. Priceline’s proprietary deals technology pairs negotiation with innovation to analyze billions of data points to generate deep discounts for customers they can’t find anywhere else. Travelers have access to millions of hotels, flights, alternative accommodations, rental cars, cruises, vacation packages and experiences from trusted brands in over 116 countries around the world, 24/7 customer service and incremental savings when becoming a Priceline VIP. By making affordable travel within reach for all, Priceline helps millions of customers each year be there for the moments that matter to them. Because where your happy place meets your happy price, that place is Priceline. |
Booking.com Launches New AI Trip Planner to Enhance Travel Planning Experience June 27, 2023 | Booking.com, one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms, has announced its new AI Trip Planner, which will launch in beta to a selection of US travelers in the company’s app on June 28. Built upon the foundation of Booking.com’s existing machine learning models that recommend destination and accommodation options to millions of travelers on the platform every day, the AI Trip Planner is also partially powered by large language model (LLM) technology from OpenAI’s ChatGPT API to create a new conversational experience for people to start their trip planning process. |
Hostelworld Group launches ‘The Solo System’, a set of social features enabling opt-in travellers to connect and meet in real life April 5, 2022 | Hostelworld Group, the leading platform for hostel travel, announces ‘The Solo System’, a set of social features enabling travellers to interact and connect with like-minded people. Users searching on Hostelworld can now find trending places with the ‘See Who’s Going’ feature, and once a booking is made, they’ll be able to ‘Chat’ to people visiting the same locations and view their ‘Traveller Profiles’. |
