Bright outlook for long-haul travel
The outlook is bright for long-haul travel, except for the US, according to the analysis of flight bookings by ForwardKeys.
The company, which tracks around 17 million flight booking transactions a day, said the climate in the US is expected to be ‘somewhat cooler’ than the rest of the world.
It said 2017 was an outstanding year for long-haul travel.
Globally, there was 7% growth. Inbound air travel to the Asia Pacific region was up 4.4%, to Africa and the Middle East flight arrivals were up 11.5% and to Europe they were up 13.3%.
The only negative was the Americas, where growth was virtually frozen at just 0.1% up on 2016.
Looking at the travel forecast for the first quarter of 2018, ForwardKeys said long-haul flight bookings are ‘generally exceptionally bright’ everywhere, 10.4% ahead of the equivalent moment last year.
Current long-haul bookings for the Asia Pacific region are 12% ahead of where they were last December.
The notable exception is the US, where bookings for international arrivals are just 2.6% ahead.
Olivier Jager, CEO Forward Keys, said: “One has to be optimistic. Despite 2017 being a year filled with economic and political uncertainty, it is one in which long-haul travel has grown strongly and that trend looks set to continue."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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