Articles - Marketing Strategy - June 8, 2020

US, UK Travel Sales Won’t Recover Until 2022

admin June 8, 2020

0 546 2 min read

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for traveling dropped off significantly, especially in the US and UK, two of the hardest hit countries. The situation is exacerbated by a halt in business traveling and cruise ships worldwide.

Our data is based on the assumption that lockdown restrictions ease in H2 2020 and demand for traveling will likely still be weak until a vaccine is available, which is estimated to arrive in H2 2021. This being said, a full recovery will likely not happen until 2022.

United States

“As summer breaks approach, US consumers’ appetite for travel is starting to increase. But fears of infection, foreign travel restrictions and the desire to avoid a quarantine will keep most of those who pack their bags closer to home,” said eMarketer senior analyst Jasmine Enberg. “Domestic travel, particularly car trips, will be the most popular form of leisure travel this year, and that will depress digital travel sales in 2020 as domestic trips tend to cost less than international travel.”

As a result, we estimate that digital travel sales in the US will drop by 44.7% in 2020 with total sales tallying $115.27 billion, a far cry from the $208.44 billion in 2019.
Strong growth is expected post-vaccine, resulting in a digital travel sales growth of 21% next year in the US.
Digital travel sales will likely not reach its pre-virus sales until 2022, when digital travel sales are expected to grow by 49.7% to reach $208.8 billion in the US.