Tripadvisor research reveals COVID-19 vaccines driving global tourism demand

June 15, 2021

A new study from online travel company Tripadvisor reveals that rising confidence to travel among vaccinated populations around the world, with North America and Europe leading the recovery of the tourism industry.

The report, entitled A Shot in The Arm for Travel? Examining the Vaccine's Impact on Leisure Travel Demand, provides a unique insight into emerging travel planning trends around the world by combining behavioural analysis of Tripadvisor's first-party search data - revealing the type of trips travellers are actively researching on the world's largest travel platform - with consumer sentiment analysis gathered via traveller surveys in six major international markets, exploring the latest in traveller attitudes and confidence.

The report identifies clear behavioural differences in how vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers are thinking about travel, and how that is translating into travel planning behaviors on the Tripadvisor platform, with vaccinated travellers more likely to be booking vacations already, and to be planning to stay longer and spend more when they travel.

In countries like the USA and the UK, where the vaccination rollout has reached large swathes of the adult population, eager travellers are pushing the tourism recovery forward. At the other end of the spectrum, countries where the vaccine rollout is at a less advanced stage and new variants of COVID-19 have impacted local populations - particularly across the Asia-Pacific region - are experiencing a slower recovery in leisure travel demand.

Commenting on the findings, Stephen Kaufer, Tripadvisor, Inc. Chief Executive and co-founder, stated "higher income millennial travellers were driving the demand for leisure travel this past spring, but heading into the summer the age demographic of travellers now booking up vacations has broadened significantly, at least in countries where large populations have been vaccinated.

"If ever we needed proof that vaccines are the key to long-term recovery in the tourism sector, our latest trend data provides it. Now the focus must be on governments and international organizations to ensure vaccines reach every part of the world as quickly as possible and make it as easy as possible for vaccinated tourists to travel globally once again."

Christopher Hsi, Tripadvisor’s Head of Market Research added "after such a turbulent year, many in tourism are hopeful that a busy summer will provide a much-needed boost to the tourism industry, so it's welcome news to see the latest traveller data pointing in that direction, especially for destinations and hospitality businesses that are able to capture the growing demand for domestic vacations.

"What offers even greater hope for a long-term recovery is the impact the vaccine is having not just on people's confidence to travel, but also their willingness to turn planning into bookings. As more and more countries make progress on the rollout of the vaccine, and the positive impact that should have on the re-opening of international borders, there is every reason to expect further growth in traveller demand will come."

Other developments
At the end of last week, Saudi Arabian authorities advised that only vaccinated nationals would be allowed to attend the annual Hajj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca while overnight European Union officials signed into law digital COVID-19 passports, the first of their kind, allowing the 27 nation members to open their borders for summer travel.

The certificates will allow citizens to prove their vaccination status, if they've previously been infected with the virus or had a PCR test 72 hours before travelling.

To read the TripAdvisor report in full go to www.tripadvisor.com/TravelTrendsReportJune2021.

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