Travel is back. When the world shut down, the travel industries saw a massive hit. Companies postponed business trips, families canceled vacations, and weekend getaways became unsafe. But with omicron subsiding (knock on wood), the travel industry is roaring back to life. US Travel Agency sales saw a massive jump in the last year.
Airlines Reporting Corporation has released new data showing that air ticket sales from accredited travel agencies nearly triple from January 2021 to January 2022. The numbers jumped 187 percent in the last twelve months. From December 2021 to January 2022, total net sales increased 17 percent. January’s total air ticket sales by accredited travel agencies totaled $3.6 billion.
“January’s air travel data is encouraging. We expect continued recovery as more governments drop mandates and travel restrictions due to the omicron variant receding as well as a bounce in corporate ticketing,” said Steve Solomon, vice president of global sales, marketing, operations, and customer experience at ARC. “As we look ahead to spring travel, some of the historically popular destinations are showing booking numbers closer to pre-pandemic years, and in some cases, exceeding those levels.”
Data also shows that companies increased the price of tickets to recuperate the costs lost during the pandemic. Last January, the average ticket cost a traveler $335 instead of $409 last month. That is an increase of 22 percent. Even with that increase, the data does portray growing confidence in domestic and international travel. It also shows that travel advisors remain solid options for travelers to visit new places confidently. They help travelers unfamiliar with destinations by navigating through logistics and unexpected hiccups than they would have if they planned independently.
With the travel sector bouncing back from the COVID slump, many of the nations who depend on tourism dollars can begin their healing process; an essential step to getting the world back to a place of wonder to enjoy by all – outside our doors.
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