WHY IT RATES: Avoya Travel broke its own single-day sales record, previously set in May 2019, signaling that consumers' pent-up demand for travel is bursting free after being suppressed for 15 months by the COVID-19 pandemic. - Laurie Baratti, TravelPulse Associate Writer
Avoya Travel just announced that June 1, 2021, was the largest single day of sales in the company's long history. The record-breaking day was highlighted by a 21 percent increase in sales volume compared to Avoya's previous benchmark set in May of 2019.
This extraordinary sales day follows an incredibly successful May 2021 that featured a continuation of Avoya's "Vacations to Take Now" campaign focused on travel in 2021, and a "Memorial Day Sale", encouraging travelers to book now for 2022 and 2023, while space is still available and early booking promotions are being offered.
While the majority of booked sales depart in 2022 and beyond, 36 percent of the sales for vacations booked on June 1 depart in 2021, signaling a strong acceleration in demand for last-minute travel this year as the industry looks to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Destination-wise, Europe accounted for over 45 percent of the sales, followed by the Caribbean, and U.S. travel. U.S. travel doubled over 2019 for same-day sales while exotics and Africa were up over 200 percent showcasing the different mindset of travelers booking today-some still want to stay close to home while others have saved up and want to cross off a "bucket list" trip like an African safari. Luxury and upper premium brands were the largest share of sales on June 1 and escorted tours also saw significant gains over previous months, and more notably, over 2019.
Avoya sees the historic milestone as an extremely positive indication of the recovery of leisure travel. "It's been incredibly encouraging to see the rebuild of leisure travel in recent months and to have our highest sales day in company history happen during the COVID-19 pandemic is astounding," said Jeff Anderson, Co-President of Avoya Travel.
"We are thankful for our loyal travelers and proud of the resiliency of the Independent Agencies in the Avoya Network and grateful for our Preferred Partners, all of whom have supported Avoya during these challenging times. We have been passionate about continuing to innovate, being nimble and operating in a 'start-up' fashion, and looking at the last 14 months of the pandemic as an opportunity to have constraint drive innovation. We couldn't be more pleased that not only has our focus worked to move us through a worldwide crisis, but we're coming out the other side with record-breaking results, and June 1 is just the beginning."
Avoya previously reported a substantial lift in sales volume throughout the first quarter of 2021 including sales patterns that exceeded 2019 levels by several different metrics. With cruise lines set to resume operations from U.S. ports as early as June and COVID-19 restrictions loosening across the United States and around the world, Avoya expects to see the pent-up demand for travel continue to reflect in future vacation sales. In early 2021 Avoya was forecasting a full recovery to pre-pandemic revenue levels in the fourth quarter of 2022; however, with the continued increase in demand and positive sales trends, those expectations have been moved up to the second quarter of 2022.
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