Travel Numbers to Continue Increasing for Remainder of 2021

A new study found that while around 70 percent of global consumers plan to travel domestically within the next six months, less than 10 percent have booked their trips.

According to a survey from consulting firm Oliver Wyman, airports in the United States will match or exceed the passenger traffic rate of pre-pandemic travel sometime in early 2022.

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Leisure travel will continue increasing through the end of the year, with a massive spike expected during the Thanksgiving and Winter Holiday periods.

International travel continues to be the most impacted by the pandemic, as U.S. tourists are more than twice as likely to select a domestic destination for their next leisure trip (67 percent domestic vs. 27 percent international).

“The summer travel surge is just the beginning of a recovery that seemed almost impossible a little more than a year ago,” Oliver Wyman partner Jessica Stansbury said. “We expect to see a continued desire for leisure travel through the end of the year and travel providers should anticipate a sustained leisure recovery with strong bookings continuing at least through the end of the year.”

As for business travel, about 75 percent of corporate respondents expect to travel the same as or more than they did pre-pandemic, with nearly 80 percent of U.S. business travelers planning to book a work trip in the next three months.

Another 66 percent of global travelers ranked price as one of their top three factors when purchasing flight tickets, while cleanliness has become a less important factor in travel decisions than it was at the height of the pandemic.