The global travel and tourism sector is bouncing back after the hardest two years in its history, although still vulnerable to global economic conditions, the war in Ukraine, and new variants of Covid-19.
According to data presented by AugustaFreePress, travel and tourism revenues are set to reach $716.8bn in 2022, showing a huge 45% YoY increase. The revenue growth is expected to continue in 2023, with revenues rising by another 20% YoY to $852bn worldwide.
Cruise Industry Still Lagging Behind
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the global tourism sector had seen almost uninterrupted growth for decades. With billions of dollars spent on hotels, cruises, vacation rentals, and package holidays each year, the entire market hit a $776.4bn value in 2019, according to Statista data.
After a deep plunge in 2020 and 2021, there are signs the travel sector is bouncing back. The UNWTO World Tourism Barometer showed international tourist arrivals in seven months of 2022 almost tripled compared to a year-ago period, reaching 57% of the pre-pandemic. Statista expects global travel and tourism revenues to hit $716.8bn by the end of the year, up from $491.5bn in 2021. In 2023, travel and tourism revenues are expected to grow by another $135bn, with the entire market reaching an $852bn value.
However, some market segments still lag behind recovery. Hotels, the largest part of the travel and tourism industry, are expected to bring in $406.5bn in revenue in 2023, up from $348bn this year. Package holidays, accounting for 32% of total revenues next year, will bring $279.7bn, 22% more than in 2022. Vacation rentals follow with $97bn in revenue next year, a 17% increase year-over-year.
Although the cruise industry revenues are forecast to jump by 35% YoY to $25.1bn in 2023, that is still below pre-Covid-19 levels. In 2019, cruise trips and holidays brought $27.5bn worldwide, $2.4bn more than estimates for the next year.
Hotels to Reach 1.1 billion users in 2023
The Statista survey also revealed that all segments of the travel and tourism industry are set to witness substantial user growth next year and full recovery to pre-covid-19 levels. Hotels will reach over 1.1 billion users worldwide, up from 969 million this year.
The number of people using vacation rentals, the second-largest segment by the number of users, is set to grow by 19% YoY to almost 840 million in 2023. Package holidays follow with 513 million users, up from 428.6 million this year.
Although the number of users in the cruise industry will grow by 35% YoY to 24.5 million next year, that is still 4.6 million less than in 2019.
Overall, the user penetration rate in the entire market is expected to reach 24.2% in 2023, the same as before COVID-19.
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