In the most recent updates of its 'Insights on Travel Impact' series which is based on over 350 million traveller profiles and billions of travel intent signals, it says "for the first time in a long time" it is seeing significantly improved sentiment for travel within the next six months.
The general trend has been a uniform sentiment towards pushing travel back to the end of the year for all destinations throughout the world. But, from its 11-Apr-2020 data snapshot there are significant improvements in flight searches for China, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand, although Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand continue to maintain the longer year-end trend.
CHART - Flight search data shows an improved sentiment for travel to China, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand over the next six months
Source: Sojern
This latest development follows the previous positive findings from the preceding regional Asia Pacific report from Sojern that Singaporeans are showing a strong a demand for staycations (they are searching for staycations twice as much as compared to the same time last year), while South Koreans are demonstrating a readiness to travel (domestic searches and bookings bouncing back up slowly for check-in dates at hotels within the next two months).
While Chinese international travel is being confined by current restricted regulations on air services out of the country, travellers are showing signs of confidence to travel internationally, according to Sojern's research. Its data shows they are starting to search for travel for Chinese New Year in Feb-2021, with most having had only muted celebrations this year. There are also a good number of searches and even bookings for China's National Day happening from in Oct-2020.
Outside of Asia Pacific, in Europe, while there are signs that some countries are looking to incrementally relax their lockdowns, global flight searches and bookings continue to plateau. Sojern's data snapshot from 20-Apr-2020 shows some small upticks - such as flight searches to Switzerland, and flight bookings to Greece - but overall, all countries are showing flight searches and bookings well down year-over-year.
The recent relaxation of the lockdown in Germany with the opening of smaller shops has already had an influence on traveller sentiment, according Sojern's research, with a slight upward trend in both domestic searches and bookings for hotels in the country. While still significantly down year-over-year this uptick is a positive sign for all countries who are concerned in the bounce-back of demand.
CHART - An initial relaxation in restrictions in Germany has resulted in an increase in domestic hotel searches and bookings even though travel is still not permitted
Source: Sojern
For the Middle East and Africa, although international travel intent is still lower than usual, the data continues to show a steady uptick in overall searches to the region. Looking at an average of searches to key destinations in the region, travel intent begins to pick up in 3Q2020, and continues to improve through to a departure date of Feb-2021. Searches for travel in Oct-2020 are 56% down year-over-year, according to the Sojern data, but only 20% down for Feb-2021 departures, albeit there are significant regional variations.
CHART - International travel intent to the Middle East & Africa is still lower than usual, but continues to show a steady uptick in overall searches to the region
Source: Sojern