International travel expected to surpass pre-pandemic figures

Reporting for CBS from New York recently, Wendy Gillette said almost every survey showed travel will not slow down in 2024, with the International Air Transport Association predicting 4.7bn air passengers, surpassing pre-pandemic 2019 figures and showing growth over 2023’s travel surge.

This is borne out by Gillette’s focus on the 22nd ILTM Cannes travel expo, which she said was the largest ILTM event to date with 83 representatives and more than 80,000 meetings.

Global business forecasts show airline ticket prices rising to $780 from $766 last year, while hotel prices are up from $168 to $174, she added.

Her report cites Japan, Croatia, and Iceland as growing in popularity, with this year’s top three destinations expected to be Italy, Greece, and France.

The 2024 Zicasso Luxury Travel Report confirms these trends, adding that some unexpected destinations are rising in popularity among the luxury travel audience in particular, including New Zealand and Australia.

Meanwhile, in a CNBC article headlined “Americans are canceling trips that are thousands of miles from Gaza. Here’s why”, Tan, quoting Zicasso’s Luxury Travel Report, noted geopolitical conflict was among the biggest obstacles to traveling this year.

“After the October events in the Middle East, we did see a significant fall-off in trip requests to Israel and the surrounding region. Typically, when travelers have second thoughts about overseas travel to a certain region due to obstacles such as geopolitical conflict, we find that travelers will redirect to other international destinations,” Tan told CNBC.