Travel & Hospitality
The State of Travel & Hospitality Report: Q1 2022
Report summary
New COVID-19 variants shook the industry’s slow but steady path to recovery in 2021. Now, with omicron in the rearview mirror and confirmed cases falling in most key regions, travel and hospitality brands can look forward to a bustling 2022.
Key Takeaways
- Travel is rebounding (again) after holiday disruptions: The omicron surge took more of a logistical than an existential toll on travel. With the wave now passed, travelers are looking forward to more trips in 2022, which promises to be a better year for the industry than 2021.
- Air travel continues to face challenges: The first months of the year are typically slow for air travel, but the inverse relationship between air travel and road trips reveals that travelers will continue to trade the sky for the car where possible.
- Unique traveler needs drive accommodation preferences: Chain hotels are still the top-ranked accommodation, but vacation rentals and boutique hotels stand to experience some market share growth, driven by the preferences of high earners and millennials.
- “Blended” is the new “business”: Traditional business trips have still not returned in earnest, and the appetite for business travel appears to be waning. In its place, travelers are blending leisure and business travel, revealing new opportunities and needs that brands must address.
Methodology
This report is grounded in multiple datasets:
Monthly survey research conducted from October 2021 to February 2022 among roughly 2,200 U.S. adults
Data from a February 2022 survey of 7,000 adults across Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom
“Return to Normal” trend data leveraged from weekly surveys of 2,200 U.S. adults
The interviews were conducted online, and the data was weighted to approximate respective populations of adults based on gender, educational attainment, race and region. Top-line results from all surveys have a margin of error of up to +/-3percentage points.
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