Recession tips

Skift Research has been tracking the performance of the travel industry since the start of the pandemic, and we have analyzed all the peaks and troughs, highs and lows for three years now. The last months of 2022 saw little movement in the global Index score as continued growth in demand in some areas was counterbalanced by increased worries about the broader economy.

Despite recession risks and inflation impacts, the travel industry has in fact plenty of significant upsides.

This has been a year of growing optimism around the travel industry’s recovery, as well as growing pessimism about rising inflation, sky high rates, and a possible recession. Here are some of the highs and lows of the past year, in the form of 11 charts produced by the Skift Research team. 

Travel is picking up in the U.S. In December, 55 percent of Americans traveled, 10 percentage points higher than the same time last year. However, the number of respondents who travelled decreased by 2 percentage points in December compared to September indicative of typical seasonality in travel with the winter season commencing.

Thailand’s economy is expected to grow 3.8 percent this year, helped by a rebound in the vital tourism sector, while inflation should cool to its target range, the finance minister said on Saturday.

For more than two decades, outbound travel from China was a major rising catalyst for global travel, an economic engine spurred by the emerging middle class in the country of 1.4 billion people. Chinese travel could be felt from Vancouver to Dubai to Singapore with destinations becoming reliant on the steady stream of easily spending tourists.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, June 9. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.