At Amadeus our people, technology and innovation are all dedicated to helping our customers and partners shape the future of travel. To this end, we are continually committed to better understanding our industry and encouraging debate and discussion around the topics that matter and have implications for the entire sector. This is just one reason why we embarked on the Global Travel Industry Report.
This major industry study, commissioned by Amadeus, was written by Oxford Economics. It forecasts travel to grow by 5.4% per annum over the next 10 years, outpacing global GDP. Macro trends driving industry growth over the next decade predict an optimistic macro-economic outlook for global travel over the next 10 years. A few more highlights of the report are:
Travel increases in the region: The Asia-Pacific, Middle East and African regions will be the fastest growing regions over the next 10 years, with Asia growing at nearly double the rate of the 2002-2012 period. Over the 2013 to 2023 period, visitor flows for the Middle East and Africa will grow at an annual rate of 11.9%, a few percentage points above the 8.4% growth registered over the prior ten-year period.
Business travel will bounce back as links between the East and West stimulate new demand, but western short-haul business travel will not reach the levels it experienced pre-2008, until 2018. The Asian region will account for 55% of global business travel growth in the next 10 years.
Air travel growth will be led by emerging economies such as India, Indonesia and Russia, as non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) air travel is set to overtake that of OECD members for the first time, to become the largest source of global air traffic by the year 2023.
Demand for international hotel stays has outpaced demand for domestic stays since the recession, suggesting reduced domestic hotel spending is the new norm. From 2013 to 2023, domestic stays are expected to grow by only 3.4% per annum, and international stays by 5.1% per annum.
Santiago Jimenez
Director, Sub-Saharan Africa
Amadeus