道路上的颠簸,更高的支出特征是2022年的前六个月
经过多里·萨尔茨曼(Dori Saltzman)/An Omicron surge may have put a damper on the start of 2022, but it didn’t last long. Bookings have been pouring in for most of the year, with travelers spending more per trip than they ever have before.
These were just some of the talking points discussed when Travel Market Report spoke with five host agency and franchise executives for a six-month check in looking backwards at how the first half of the year went, as well as what’s expected for the next half of the year.
在这篇文章中,我们查看了今年的前六个月。
乐观,颠簸的开始
“We all know the first quarter didn’t happen the way we all wanted it to go,” Michelle Fee, founder and CEO of Cruise Planners said.
She had hoped that January 1 would bring with it a magic bullet that would make all the ills of the previous two years vanish, she said.
“但是科维德为我们留下了另一轮。”
费用不是今年年初唯一感到乐观的人。
Nexion旅行集团总裁杰基·弗里德曼(Jackie Friedman)说:“当我们在1月1日转身时,我们准备过一个美好的一年。”
Jeff Anderson, co-CEO of Certares was optimistic, but said they’d anticipated a slowdown at some point in the year.
“We had anticipated that there would be another wave of COVID. We didn’t know when, but we were lucky enough to guess that it was going to happen in the first quarter,” he told TMR.
世界旅行控股公司(Dream Vacations of Dream Vacations and Cruiseone的母公司)的首席运营官Debbie Fiorino说:“大多数人都期望一月份的情况将会接近正常。”“我们知道并非如此。路上有一些颠簸。Omicron变体显然是一个很大的变体。媒体报道了巡航船上的共同案件的上升。疾病预防控制中心的公告将其巡航旅行警告提高到了最高水平。我们当时想,发生了什么?但是尽管受到逆风,我们仍然非常乐观。我们知道他们会过去。”
And they did.
“Around the second quarter of the year, things did start to pick up. We started to get on a roll and I’m not going to say things were back to normal – I don’t even know what that means anymore – but we are having really good booking weeks,” Fee said.
弗里德曼补充说:“人们确实想旅行。”“似乎每次我们面对挑战时,[恢复]每次都会缩短。”
高管们说,自2月和3月的业务开始飞行。
“Fortunately, since late February, this came to be strong enough to make up for how severe Omicron was,” Anderson said. “We sit here now, in the back half of the year, pretty happy with the way the first half turned out.”
Based on preliminary numbers, he said Certares will be slightly ahead of what they predicted for the first half of the year. “That always feels good,” he added.
弗里德曼说:“当我从啤酒中看的头六个月时,我们的弧线销售,我们的空中销售回到2019年及以上。”
晴雨表Nexion轨道之一是他们的卓越圈计划,该计划仅向达到一定销售门槛的顾问开放。“对此的测量是明年的8月1日至7月31日。她说:“进入该测量期的最后一个月,就打击这一目标的顾问的数量而言,我们接近创纪录的速度。”
Fiorino said World Travel Holdings looks at measurements like the last seven days, last four weeks, last ten weeks, etc. So far, all those measurements are showing things going in a positive direction.
Some Softness
但是,这并不是所有的玫瑰色。一些目的地beplay银行卡和旅行产品仍然柔和。
弗里德曼说:“乌克兰的局势使一些人在前往的地方发生了变化。beplay银行卡
Nest总裁Kathryn Mazza-Burney告诉TMR:“我会说前四个半月的进展非常好。”“尽管他们仍然非常忙,但在过去的四个半月中,他们非常忙。我们的2019年超过了2019年。在过去的一个半月中,我们在某些地区有些软化。”
She pointed to contemporary cruises in particular.
(在本系列的未来分期付款中,TMR将更多地了解下半年及以后的旅行顾问面临的逆风。
CDC内规则反转是游戏规则改变者
尽管顾问在2022年上半年的大部分时间里已经做得很好,但是当CDC删除进入美国的人们的Arrarival Covid测试时,情况变得更好。
“我们将努力,”弗里德曼告诉咯。“那was big… we’re seeing a really nice rebound there as they relaxed their testing and quarantine requirements, which were a huge barrier for travel.”
Anderson agreed. “We’re starting to see relief signs from travelers that they feel more comfortable in venturing out now,” he said. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand, but there was also a pent-up anxiety about what happens if I get stuck.”
Fiorino echoed Friedman and Anderson. “People were worried about being quarantined in a foreign country,” she said, adding they saw a big uptick in bookings outside of the United States after the CDC rule change.
But that wasn’t the only development that helped. More kids getting vaccinated helped boost family travel. The CDC moving cruise ships out of its highest COVID warning level helped as well.
So did countries loosening their travel restrictions and policies.
“A lot of countries around the world removed their barriers… going to these countries there was no barrier. When that happened, people started to want to travel again,” see Fee.
A flood of travel promotions helped as well.
“A lot of suppliers had great tactical offers,” Friedman said. “Fear has a price.”
Dream Vacations got in on that action as well, Fiorino said, offering their “Spring Ka-Ching” promotion, their longest-running promotion ever, which was available for cruise, resort and villa vacations.
支出上升
Increased bookings aren’t the only signs of progress host and franchise executives are seeing.
Mazza-Burney said they’re seeing more advisors return to their storefronts. NEST has also returned to full marketing, including direct mail.
More importantly, people are spending – a lot.
“The travel spend of the consumer has absolutely increased,” said Mazza-Burney.
“People want to go away and they’re spending more money,” echoed Fee. “The trips that people are buying are more expensive. I looked at our last couple weeks of booking and they are way up from 2019.”
It’s not only pent-up demand that has people spending more. Inflation, which many look at as a headwind, in many ways been a tailwind instead, said Anderson. People want to travel and, at least in the first six months of the year, they’re not letting higher prices stop them.
“如果您看一下我们不售的机票,但航空公司的门票比正常通货膨胀率领先。我们在巡游方面看到了这一点。我们看到这是在我们的度假企业中……记住,我们正在委托。我们能够根据需求提高的所有额外价格分享所发生的一切。”