Amadeus’ Agency360 and Demand360 recent data sources are showing strong recovery indicators for the remainder of 2022 and evidence of growing traveler confidence as the sector looks towards 2023.
Amadeus’ in-depth Demand360 business intelligence data, which offers both retrospective and forward-looking insights to inform revenue strategy, reveals that global hotel occupancy has exceeded pre-pandemic levels consistently throughout the summer.
For July and August 2022, hotels have seen a global occupancy average of 67 per cent compared with an average of 64 per cent over the same timeframe in 2019 – a three per cent increase from three years ago.
These positive trends indicate consistent consumer confidence when it comes to booking travel for future stay dates, laying excellent foundations for a strong quarter four, where on-the-books data is already outpacing 2019 bookings.
Mirroring the recovery of occupancy rates is the stabilization of booking lead times.
This year now virtually matches the booking behaviors seen in 2019, with 53 per cent of bookings made in the zero-to-seven-day window versus 50 per cent of bookings made in this timeframe in 2019.
As the booking lead time improves, this implies increasing traveller confidence as people make longer term commitments.
Average Daily Rates (ADR) also continue to trend positively for quarter four, exceeding 2019 for the remainder of 2022 and, as usual, peaking around the Thanksgiving holiday (US) and Christmas.
Group travel is set for a strong conference season in quarter four.
Global group occupancy is consistently between one-to-two per cent of pre-pandemic levels for the remainder of 2022 as the conference sector starts to rebound.
Amadeus data shows that group bookings are now also starting to extend more confidently into 2023, with 4.3 million bookings already made for half one of 2023.
With group travel set for strong recovery into quarter four and beyond, hoteliers can confidently plan in advance for larger groups, mitigate the potential impact of staff shortages, and begin to think about what new and exciting event technology to implement to support planners’ demands.
Business travel is also seeing a steady recovery as the year continues.
This year is closing the gap to 2019 levels according to Amadeus’ Agency360 data, which reveals that hotel bookings across all major global distribution systems (GDS) have increased 98 per cent in August 2022 compared to January 2022.
Katie Moro, vice president, data partnerships, hospitality, Amadeus, concluded: “It is very encouraging to see such positive data this summer across all segments of hospitality.
“As the appetite to travel looks set to continue to build in the forthcoming months, it is essential that hoteliers and destination marketers have accurate, forward-looking data insights to enable them to maximize their revenue strategies and minimize the ongoing challenges connected to staff shortages.
“With this insight, they can also understand more about who is travelling, enabling them to deliver a truly differentiated experience.”
