This is the State of Travel Right Now

Today we launched our annual State of Travel report. It's our biggest one yet.

In many ways 2024 represents the start of a new era for the travel industry. We have broken through to a post-pandemic world where, for the first time in almost half a decade, there are no COVID tailwinds or headwinds to guide our industry.

The state of travel in 2024 is strong. Travel businesses are growing with healthy margins. But many questions hang over our industry. Could the global economy enter a recession? Where will Chinese travelers go next? What does the future hold for budget airlines? How will our industry adapt to a new generation of AI-powered tech tools? Understanding the challenges and opportunities facing travel today is critical.

Our State of Travel report is designed to be your reference handbook to navigating the complex world of travel in 2024. From consumer insights, to sector deep dives, and executive perspectives, we have put together 350+ insights with the hope to have a chart for almost any topic. You can download the report by filing out a form on Skift, and then receive it in your inbox.

I've put together a quick reading guide and pulled out five of my favorite slides, below. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

We hope you enjoy the report.

– Seth Borko, Head of Research

Section one of our report looks at overall tourism performance with breakdowns by region and country, as well as a look at the economic landscape facing travel today. My favorite slide in this section maps -- quite literally -- the eastward shift of travel's center of gravity as tourism demand from Asia and the Middle East continues to grow.

Section two dives into the big trends driving our industry. What do consumers and businesses want? What is happening in fields of sustainability and AI. And how are investors reacting to all of this?

A favorite slide of mine highlights the the evolving conversation around sustianability in travel. Younger consumers have a finely tuned sense of greenwashing. Talk is cheap. They want to see a demonstrable impact from your business on the climate. And if you can prove it, they are willing to pay up for your premium serivce.

And I'd be not remiss, not to mention our Skift Travel 200 stock index of publically traded travel companies. While Investor sentiment around travel is lukewarm, digging under the hood of this index to check how revenue is doing tells an interesting story. Growth is slowing, but we are far from catastrophe.

Section three goes sector by sector as we get into the weeds of what makes travel businesses tick. We cover: airlines, hotels, short-term rentals, online travel, traditional travel agents, multi-day tours, day tours & experiences, cruises, and car rentals.

I'm faced with an impossibe task of highlighting just two slide from our most varied chapter. Apologies for playing favorites but this hotel sector chart just spoke to me. It highlights the power of that brands play in driving bookings and shows us the potential for these same brands to expand globally.

Sticking with the distribution theme i'll close with our survey results on the power of credit cards in travel. These booking platforms are not to be dismissed as powerful drivers of consumer behavior. Among a certain set of travelers, credit cards are as likely to be used for bookings as an online travel agency or even the direct brand(dot)com website.

That's a wrap are my five favorite charts. What do you think? With 345 others to pick from I want to know what your favorites are.

But first, download the State of Travel report here.