Travel Trends

The collective sentiment from travel industry executives from Best Western International, the Global Travel Association (GBTA) of Canada and The Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) who recently gathered at the fifth annual Business Travel Summit is that the Canadian business travel market is rebounding and will continue to improve in 2011.

Whistler, British Columbia appears on list of top price drops for the first time since 2009

New research conducted by American Express Global Business Travel and the GBTA Foundation (Global Business Travel Association) benchmarks the travel spending businesses require to help support their growth. It further explores the change in this suggested optimal spending level depending on the economic conditions and business characteristics, including industry. The study suggests that travel can be an overlooked means to gain competitive advantage, and those companies that regard travel expenditures as indirect costs to be minimized cut into a key established expansion driver.

As companies carefully watched their budgets in 2010, many were reluctant to send their employees on planes, trains and automobiles.

Viator.com Predicts Similar Global Trends Supported by Rise in Traveler Online Advance Purchases, Hunger for User-Generated Content and Desire to Make Every Moment Count

The industry consensus forecast released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicates that by 2014 there will be 3.3 billion air travelers, up by 800 million from the 2.5 billion in 2009. By 2014 international aviation will handle 38 million tonnes of air cargo, up 12.5 million tonnes from the 26 million tonnes carried in 2009.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported in a release of preliminary data that U.S. airlines carried 58.1 million scheduled domestic and international passengers in November 2010. The 6.1 percent increase from November 2009 is the largest year-to-year rise since August 2007. The November 2010 passenger total was also 7.4 percent above that of two years ago in November 2008 but still remained 6.1 percent below the pre-recession level of November 2007.

The on-time performance of the nation’s largest airlines improved in 2010 compared to the previous year, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

Travelzoo Finds Eco-Tourism Lifts Its Green Wings as a Key Travel Trend to Watch

Worldwide spending on business travel should decline for the second year in a row in 2010 — by an estimated 1.8% — but is projected to almost double to reach US$1.6 trillion by 2020.