With the travel industry desperate for good news, talk of China opening up
again brings hope to many.
Nothing can be taken as certain, however, with talk in the next breath of
concerns around secondary infections of the virus or contamination from travelers or citizens arriving in the country from other areas.
Trying to make sense out of all this is challenging but
organizations tracking travel search activity are well-placed to discern any
trends.
Travel marketing specialist Sojern says in mainland China it
sees a huge uptick in flight searches, an increase in hotel searches and has heard
anecdotally that consumers are now calling hotels with queries.
However, there are “always more layers to the story," the company
cautions, saying that often the flight searches are for smaller cities and believes
it could be residents returning home as restrictions are lifted.
There have also been positive signs in Singapore, in terms of the volume
of hotel searches, but it is for domestic bookings.
Referring to the city-state, Amber Kuo, director of travel insights at Sojern, says: "We saw a lot of people doing staycations. They still want somewhere to
go, they still want to have a life. People were looking for stays in March,
April and May which is a good sign of how positive they feel.”
The company also expects self-drive weekends and vacations will be
popular in North America, once travel restrictions are lifted.
Sojern says that although travel searches hit "rock bottom" when the restrictions came into force, state-by-state, search trends still show consumer interest for trips in August and September, as
well as for drive markets.
European markets are more challenging to call, Sojern believes, with social restrictions coming
into place across countries at a more more rapid pace, impacting travel immediately.
Noreen Henry, chief revenue officer for Sojern, says there are questions being
raised as to whether travel marketing as a discipline will ever be the same, adding that the technology helping hotels to drive direct business is more
sophisticated than during previous periods of global instability, such as the global financial crisis and the SARS outbreak.
The sentiment supports reports from Italian hoteliers, who say they will want to start from "point zero" in their relationship with intermediaries, once the industry emerges from the current crisis.
Sojern believes brands should be cautious around the chances of a "v-shaped recovery."
Although there will be strong demand, the state of the
global economy and the impact on discretionary spend could mean the travel
industry takes longer to recovery.