by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:30 AM ET, Wed December 18, 2024
Post-pandemic growth is maturing and expected to continue into the next several years, according to new data from our sister company, Phocuswright, which recently published its Travel Forward: Data, Insights and Trends for 2025
The research, which can be accessed for free, reports on everything from the increased digitization of how travelers across the globe plan their travel to spending, consumer behavior and more.
So how has the industry grown and changed over the past year?
Firstly, global travel bookings are expected to reach $1.61 trillion by the end of the year, far above the $1.44 trillion in 2019. Last year was the first time it exceeded its pre-pandemic level, with travelers spending $1.48 trillion.
Increased digitization means that travelers are booking their travel online more. In 2019, global travelers spent $729 billion in offline bookings, while that number is now $610.5 billion in 2024. There’s also been an increase in supplier direct bookings: during the past five years, it’s increased from $428.2 billion to $620.1 billion. OTA bookings grew from $279 billion to $382.5 billion.
However, that doesn’t mean that offline bookings are becoming obsolete: in 2023, travelers spent $581.8 billion in offline travel bookings, so year-over-year, there is improvement.
Trends among American travelers show that while international travel has decreased from 34 percent to 31 percent year over year, travel to both Europe and Asia increased by one percentage point, showing a small change in demand for these destinations.
More travelers traveled domestically this year, a growth from 92 percent to 94 percent year-over-year. This could be due to the higher inflation that’s slowing the “revenge travel” trend that threw monetary caution to the wind in past years in favor of traveling internationally.
The global travel market is expected to grow 6-9 percent each year through 2026. Airline revenue is expected to drop to 10 percent in 2025, and will grow in the single digits from then on as the industry stabilizes.
So while we’re reentering something like normalcy after a few years of post-pandemic growth, that doesn’t mean the industry will stop growing. Instead, it’ll grow slower and steadier.
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