U.S. Emerges as Unlikely Growth Hub for These Travel Sectors
Skift Take
The relative stability found in the U.S. will help companies in the online travel agency and vacation rental orbit fuel growth for the next few years — but don’t completely write off Asia and Europe. Most major hotel companies see those regions as the way to continue adding thousands of hotels to their portfolios.
The pre-pandemic U.S. was known for being a stable market for many travel sectors rather than a widespread growth opportunity like Asia. But that stability has several companies in the online travel agency and vacation rental space wanting to beef up business rather than look abroad.
Expedia is the top online travel agency in the U.S. while Airbnb is a leader for vacation home rental distribution, but Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel emphasized earlier this year U.S. growth is a top priority. There are also a variety of newer ways to distribute hotels through entities like TripAdvisor Plus, Google Hotel Ads, and Costco Travel from the big-box retailer.
Add it all up, and you have what researchers at Bernstein call “Battlefield America” in a report out this week.
“[The U.S. is] the most valuable market if you can get it right. It's been the most consolidated market, but it's the one where we're probably seeing the biggest shift in the structural dynamic,” said Richard Clarke, a managing director at Bernstein who cov
