Innovation and trends in tourism

Results from a recent survey conducted by global travel network Virtuoso highlight how some of the world’s most discerning travellers view sustainable tourism. The results found that while travel rebounds in new and innovative ways, travellers remain ever conscious of their place and impact in the world, with more than 80% of respondents indicating that the pandemic has made them want to travel more responsibly in the future. This figure echoes identical findings from a survey conducted last year, proving that travelling sustainably continues to be a top priority for luxury travellers.

A new Ipsos Global Advisor survey of 23,577 adults aged 16-74 in 31 countries found that climate change is a regular concern for half of people across a global country average.

As travel restrictions are eased globally and the European tourism sector bounces back from the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are finally seeing a significant rebound in tourist arrivals. To manage this recovery process, it is important to understand how consumers have been affected by the pandemic, as well as their attitudes and expectations towards the future. Recognising this, and with the summer 2022 season approaching, the European Travel Commission has published a market study titled: “Exploring Consumer Travel Attitudes and Expectations to Drive Tourism Recovery”.

Financing Our Own Extinction
The study provides an estimate of the total value of environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS) across key sectors. It finds the fossil fuel, agriculture and water industries receive more than 80% of all environmentally harmful subsidies per year, depleting natural resources, degrading global ecosystems, and perpetuating unsustainable levels of production and consumption, in addition to exacerbating global inequalities said the media release.

What are EHSs?
“Environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS) are government programs that encourage unsustainable production or consumption, and in doing so harm nature by exhausting natural resources, degrading global ecosystems, and damaging planetary health. These subsidies were established with good intent: to promote economic access and solve social issues such as food security, or improve access to energy and clean drinking water. However, often the intended social goal of subsidies has been pursued without consideration of their environmental impacts. This siloed approach has contributed to the many crises afflicting the natural world, placing livelihoods and economies at risk.”

Much like the U.S., albeit a few months behind on the curve, European hotel operators are seeing a massive jump in leisure travel demand heading into this summer travel season.

But as that travel comes back, hoteliers are realizing the last two years have changed how consumers broadly view the world and how leisure travel fits into it.

To put that into context, Alexander Schneider, president of Nikki Beach Hotels and Resorts, said it's important to remember that demand never went away during the pandemic.

"I wouldn't say we saw a dip in demand," he said, while speaking during the "New Leisure" panel at the 2022 International Hospitality Investment Forum. "We saw a dip in the accessibility of locations."

Travel booking windows are lengthening as the industry recovers, according to a report from Skyscanner.


While the volume of bookings for travel three months or more before departure lags 2019 levels slightly, there is a 24% rise in bookings in EMEA between a month and 59 days in advance and a 38% increase in bookings between two months and 89 days ahead of travel.

Two-thirds of travel leaders participating in the survey indicated that they believe travel will fully return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024, with one third indicating in the survey that they believe this will happen in 2025 or beyond
Study highlights retail opportunity for travel industry from travelers’ spend on “revenge travel” 
Survey indicates that complexity is likely to become increasingly challenging for the industry, with travelers now considering more decision factors before booking a trip –  survey results indicate need for industry to be nimble to address evolving landscape

In the last year, the number of consumers expressing interest in traveling more sustainably is up 10%, but many also say they don’t know how to find sustainable accommodations or only review a property’s sustainability efforts if the information is easily accessible.

The data comes from a survey commissioned by Booking.com in February of more than 30,000 people from 32 countries and territories who had traveled at least once in the past 12 months and who plan to travel in 2022. Details are published in the brand's Sustainable Travel Report 2022.

Despite inflation and lingering COVID-19 disruptions, there's an unbridled demand for vacations that are more frequent, more indulgent, and far from home

Airline stocks have dropped more than the broader market.
Spring and summer travel demand have surged despite higher fares.
Economic concerns from inflation and recession risk have weighed on airline stock prices.

Business travel faces several added layers of complexity which affect consumer behaviour, purchase decisions, and general operations.

In fact, efforts by travel sellers and platforms related to topics such as carbon emissions, renewable energy, overcrowding and supporting local communities have accelerated in the last few years.

Online travel booking company Sabre Corp. SABR, +3.71% said Thursday that booking for air travel continued to recover in May with all major regions of thw world showing "significant" improvement from the first quarter. In a regulatory filing, the company said gross air bookings recovered to about 56% of the levels seen in 2019, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Net air bookings recovered to about 58%, while passengers boarded recovered to about 86% of the 2019 levels. Gross hotel central rservation system transactions recovered to about 110% of the 2019 level. "We are encouraged by the breadth of the overall recovery as international and corporate bookings have continued to strengthen," the company said in the filing.

Several major cruise lines, travel agents and even Google all seem to agree that Europe is in high demand this booking season. 

Data from various sources indicate that interest in and bookings for Europe travel have been strong in the past six months. 

European cities made up five of the top 20 destinations people are searching this year on Google, according to an analysis by Google Flights. The platform found Paris, London, Rome, Athens and Lisbon made the list of top searches from January through mid-April. 

While there has been a spike in business travel demand, airlines may have cause to worry as companies will exceedingly look to curb their emissions.

Interest in sustainable travel has been high for the last few years, and the airlines, tour companies, destinations, and accommodations that serve these eco-conscious explorers seem to understand this. But while businesses tout the steps they’ve taken to mitigate climate impacts, it can be hard to decipher whether they’re taking sustainability seriously or simply greenwashing their meager efforts in a bid to secure the almighty tourist dollar.

Four irreversible trends are redefining excellence in service operations. For today’s leaders, they could be a transformational opportunity—or an existential threat.

La Journée suisse des vacances, le rendez-vous annuel de la branche touristique organisé par Suisse Tourisme, a eu lieu à Arosa les 12-13 avril derniers. Le professeur Roland Schegg de l'Institut Tourisme, a eu l'occasion d'y mener une session de discussion, sur la base d'une analyse réalisée conjointement avec Christian Dernbach de Suisse Tourisme.

Cette analyse intitulée «Comportements de réservation dans le secteur de l'hébergement avant et après la pandémie - nouvelles exigences pour la distribution touristique» se fonde sur des données empiriques en Suisse (travail de bachelor à la HES-SO Valais, projet de recherche ITO Vivre et voyager à l'ère du numérique, étude 2021 sur Les canaux de distribution des hôtels en Suisse) et des études internationales récentes (étude Booking Travel predictions 2022, étude Expedia Traveler Value Index Outlook 2022, résultats du projet Monitoring Sentiment for Domestic and Intra-European Travel - Wave 10 mené par la Commission européenne du voyage (ETC)).

Les jeunes Suisse.sses sont de plus en plus nombreux.ses à partir en vacances avec un véhicule de camping. Les restrictions sanitaires étant levées, les voyages en véhicules de camping se rallongent et passent à nouveau les frontières. L'étude de marché menée par MyCamper, plateforme de location de véhicules de camping, montre que les Zurichois.es sont les champion.es suisses de la location de camping-car. Autre fait intéressant: les véhicules les plus chers sont proposés dans le canton de Zoug et ce sont les voyageurs du canton de Schwyz qui dépensent le plus pour louer un véhicule de camping.