ITB Sees Tourism Recovery ‘In the Horizon’, New Post-Covid Trends

Photo source: @ITB Berliln

Flexibility, last-minute decision-making, personalization, smart devices, domestic travel and workations are the top trends in tourism as the industry looks to achieve 46 percent growth in 2022, according to data presented at the ITB Berlin 2022 virtual tourism exhibition this week.

ITB Berlin and data platform Statista Q estimate that in 2022, the tourism industry is set to achieve 80 percent of pre-pandemic turnover reaching more than 353 billion euros and exceeding 2019 levels in 2024, when full recovery is expected.

This year’s ITB Berlin Convention, taking place virtually through to March 10, explores the future of the tourism industry and sees a significant improvement in 2021: a 36 percent rise in growth over 2020. Moreover, in 2021, the industry achieved a global turnover of around 260 billion euros.

Meanwhile, according to Statista’s February 2022 Global Consumer Survey (GCS) of more than 2,000 interviewees: 

-flexibility has become an absolute ‘must’ in the tourism industry with 28 percent of tourists taking one to three months, and less than 25 percent less than four weeks to make a travel decision

– compared with pre-Covid-19 levels, trip cancellation insurances have increased by almost 10 percent, while termination insurances have even risen by 20 percent

– the use of online booking apps has grown by more than 40 percent compared to pre-Covid 2019

– domestic tourism is more popular than ever due to Covid. The GCS shows that next year, more than 38 percent of travelers aged under 30 aim to travel in Germany, up by almost 25 percent. Overall, 72 percent of German travelers are planning a domestic trip over the next 12 months 

– personalization and smart accommodation, AI and recognition technology are the new trends with more than half of all travelers claiming to be interested in new technologies for future trips. Indicatively, 21 percent of tourists from Germany, the US and UK say they are interested in smart home devices with slightly fewer interested in recognition technology, VR and AI-based personalized travel recommendations 

– working from anywhere, aka “workations”, are the new trend. The global volume of online searches for workations has doubled, the GCS study found.