Travel in 2022 Explained in 11 Charts

25.08.2023 - 14:30 / skift.com / Wouter Geerts / Skift Research

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. 

Many of these charts are taken from our State of Travel 2022 report, which can be downloaded for free, providing a comprehensive overview of the current state of the travel industry through 175+ charts. 

Skift Research has tracked the performance of the travel industry in 22 countries and four major travel sectors (aviation, hotels, short-term rentals, and car rentals) since the start of the pandemic, collating and analyzing data from 20 travel partners. 

The year 2022 has seen most regions recover to pre-pandemic demand levels, with Asia Pacific the only real straggler, as it is slowed down by China’s persistence with its zero-Covid policy. 

For now the tap remains closed from the largest pre-pandemic source market in the world. When will China reopen and will its people travel to the same places and in the same ways as before Covid-19?

Globally, inflation is chipping away at purchasing power and risks derailing the robust travel recovery.

Throughout 2022 we have seen travel prices growing at sky-high rates. This represents strong pricing power for the industry, but also risks turning off consumers.

Our surveys amongst U.S. consumers show that high travel prices are likely to impact consumers into 2023. Few are outright canceling trips, but many are downgrading their spending to cheaper alternatives.

Unsurprisingly, publicly traded travel stocks have lagged the broad market since the pandemic. The travel stock sector, taken as a whole, declined 54% in March 2020. Since those lows, the travel sector has actually performed in-line with broad stock indices. But the sector is still 30% below its pre-pandemic high. 

The industry, and especially suppliers like airlines, airports, and accommodation providers, have struggled with staffing in 2022. While demand returned with a vengeance, staff didn’t seem as willing to come back.   

One travel sector not having the same issues with staffing is the already-leaner online travel space. Bookings made through the largest online travel agencies Booking Holdings and Expedia Group are expected to be back to pre-pandemic levels (read more here), but the jury is still out on whether they are coming out of the pandemic stronger than suppliers like hotels and airlines. 

Suppliers tend to do best in stable, growing economic environments while distributors are often the first to capitalize on disruption — both economic and technological. Distributors tend to move faster on changes in