Voice of the Industry: Travel Survey – Facing New Challenges

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key Highlights

Inflation high impact

According to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Industry: Travel Survey, inflation is the number one concern for travel businesses this year, accounting for 62% of respondents saying that it is having a moderate to extensive impact on their business. 56.5% reported that they had raised their prices as a result, which is having a knock-on effect on consumers’ willingness to travel, as budgets come under increasing pressure from rising food, travel and energy prices.

Brand and growth focus

Now that travel and tourism is on its upward trajectory for recovery, travel businesses are more actively investing in building their brands (53.4%) as well as exploring new growth opportunities (44.4%), whether new sales channels, mergers and acquisitions or innovation. Sustainability enjoyed a welcome boost in investment with 47.8% investing in sustainability whether back of the house or on the front end. 

Sustainability accelerates

Business interest in sustainability was boosted in 2022 with more engagement with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, growing three percentage points to 55.6%. On another positive note, 11% more companies provided carbon tracking tools to their consumers, while gender equality saw the highest level of interest, a core focus for 53.6% of travel businesses.

Accessibility for cities

Besides tourism attractiveness, accounting for 94.6% of travel businesses, 88.7% stated that city destination selection is based on health and safety as the impact of the pandemic continues to linger in the new travel normal. This compares to 79.0% for accessibility, compared to a much lower percentage of 51.9% for sustainability. This should act as a red flag to city destinations not to take their eye off the ball for sustainable, smart cities.