After nearly 21 months of interrupted and cancelled travel plans, 2022 will see the travel sector bounce back from its Covid-19 slump, according to new data from Tripadvisor.
A new research paper by the travel reviews platform in partnership with Ipsos MORI has claimed planned travel in 2022 will surpass actual travel in 2019.
Tripadvisor polled a total of 10,390 adults across the UK, US, Australia, Japan and Singapore, and found 78% of UK respondents are likely to travel for leisure in 2022 - compared to 72% who said they travelled for leisure in 2019.
However, average spend per trip for 2022 is slightly down (-1%) compared to pre-pandemic levels, with Brits planning to spend less on travel this year than they did in 2019.
While a sizeable proportion of respondents plan to travel abroad this year, travelling within their home country is still said to be the most favoured option.
Only 48% of UK travellers said they plan to travel overseas compared to 73% who intend to travel domestically.
Meanwhile, more than a third to nearly half of all travellers surveyed in the UK (38%), US (41%), Australia (46%), Japan (34%) and Singapore (49%) said that travelling to a destination they’ve never been to before would be more important to them now compared to 2019.
Almost three quarters (70%) of Brits said it is important they “see new places” when thinking about their future travel plans, while 75% of Americans, 74% of Australians, 73% of Singaporeans and over half (59%) in Japan said the same.
Although people are keen to book more travel experiences in 2022, Covid concerns continue to weigh on the minds of those surveyed across the five markets.
Nearly three quarters of British travellers (72%), 85% of Singaporean travellers, around three quarters of Japanese (73%) and Australian (74%) travellers and 70% of Americans said cleanliness measures of a hospitality business will be an important factor in their travel decision making in 2022.
Kanika Soni, chief commercial officer of Tripadvisor, said despite new Covid variants, consumers across the globe still want to travel.
"This is evident in Tripadvisor month-over-month search data which shows a consistent, healthy increase in page views post-Christmas," she added.
"Travellers are quickly adapting to local public health conditions, with cleanliness and safety remaining important factors in their planning."
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