Will travel abroad resume in the second half of the year?
Travel platform Tripadvisor released a report revealing how consumers are planning to travel in 2021; and Spain gets ready for a late spring restart of tourism
The report, which analysed first party search data, as well as traveller sentiment, across six major markets (the UK, the US, Australia, Italy, Japan and Singapore), revealed consumers’ increasing confidence that they will travel abroad in the second half of the year, despite the restrictions on international travel currently in force in countries like the UK.
In fact, globally, the majority of hotel clicks on Tripadvisor are already shifting to international destinations for trips taking place from May 2021 onwards (as opposed to domestic destinations, which had dominated the proportion of hotel clicks throughout 2020).
Travellers are planning to travel abroad in the second half of the year
Nearly half (47 per cent) of all travellers surveyed globally say they are planning to travel internationally in 2021. In the UK, that proportion rises to well over half (58 per cent) of those surveyed.
In fact, of the six nations surveyed, British holidaymakers are the most likely to have already booked a 2021 trip abroad - one in six (16 per cent) have already done so, compared to a global average of one in 10 (11 per cent) respondents.
In the first week of January, 85 per cent of hotel researchers on Tripadvisor in the UK were planning international breaks for later this year - of 15 countries analysed, only Germany had a higher proportion of users clicking to book international hotels that week.
Spain hopes to cash in on these sentiments
The Spanish government has set its sights on the return of international travellers by the end of spring. The country relies heavily on tourism and is launching a campaign focused on promoting Spain as a ‘safe destination’ to restore consumer confidence.
Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto stressed that research had shown that Spain’s image as a destination had not been damaged by the pandemic and there was demand from holidaymakers to return to the country later in the year.
“Our priority in 2021 is to reactivate tourism and resume safe mobility on a global scale as soon as possible,” said Maroto. “We are working to adopt a common framework of a series of planned actions to give confidence to tourists. We hope that at the end of spring and especially during the summer, international travel will resume and travellers will choose Spain as their destination.”
Hopeful holidaymakers have been buoyed by the approval and rollout of the first coronavirus vaccines, according to more research by UK travel insurance specialists Just Travel Cover.