Skift Take

History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes. While Covid-19 has different root causes than the financial crisis of 2008, there are still lessons to be learned from the last crisis that apply to travel today.

The current Covid-19 outbreak has put the world of travel on pause and given us all cause to reevaluate how we want to run our businesses. Skift Research is using the moment to look back on past crises and draw upon the lessons they can offer our industry.

Our latest report in this series will focus on the impact of the 2008/2009 financial crisis on travel. The first report was on what can be learned from the 9/11 and SARS crises.

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We will primarily focus on the U.S. market, where we have the most data. But we believe the lessons drawn from the analysis apply to the much broader travel industry today.

This report takes a big picture look at changes in consumer behavior during the great recession and how sectors like hotels, airlines, and travel agents responded. We also draw on two case studies to highlight both a successful and unsuccessful crisis response.

We distill 13 in-depth lessons for the travel industry that are relevant today. These include insights on potential for a shift towards domestic travel and a look at how the timing of the recovery could vary across segments like leisure versus business, and budget compared to luxury.

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What You’ll Learn from This Report:

  • Thirteen in-depth lessons for the travel industry learned during the 2008 financial crisis that still apply to companies dealing with Covid-19 today.
  • How U.S. consumers shifted behaviors during the great recession of 2008.
  • How different parts of the travel industry performed during the crisis including the hotel, airline, and travel agent sectors.
  • Winner Case Study: What Marriott did well to emerge from the last travel recession a stronger company.
  • Loser Case Study: Why the crisis forced Extended Stay America to declare bankruptcy and restructure its business.

Subscribe to Skift Research Reports

This is the latest in a series of monthly reports aimed at analyzing the fault lines of disruption in travel. These reports are intended for the busy travel industry decision-maker. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. Over 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

After you subscribe, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports conducted on topics ranging from technology to marketing strategy to deep dives on key travel brands. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report à la carte at a higher price.

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Tags: extended stay america, global financial crisis, marriott, skift research

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