Whether it's growing demand for travel or the return of international flights, glimmers of hope are fortunately becoming more common for the travel and tourism industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of deals announced within the global travel and tourism sector grew by a sizable 22.7 percent during the week ended May 10 compared to the previous week, which had seen a decline, U.K.-based data analytics and consulting company GlobalData reported Thursday.
The rise was attributed to the jump in debt offering deals, which increased by a whopping 160 percent over the course of last week. Meanwhile, mergers and acquisitions volume declined by 57.1 percent and the number of venture financing deals decreased by 33.3 percent.
Travel and tourism deal activity increased in the U.S. during the week ended May 10 compared to the previous week. However, activity declined in India and China.
"The travel and tourism sector is among the worst hit due to coronavirus/COVID-19 and deal activity in the sector has also remained inconsistent since the outbreak," said Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, in a statement. "The growth in deal activity during the week (subsequent to a decline in the previous week) was primarily due to an increase in the announcement of debt offering deals."
GlobalData's latest report is especially encouraging in the wake of some pessimistic projections for the industry.
Earlier this month, Nick Wyatt, Head of R&A and Travel and Tourism at GlobalData, predicted that "airlines will become smaller-at least in the short-to-mid-term" due to the impact of COVID-19.
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