Saniya Zanpure

Hong Kong is back in business. Travel performance boomed in August 2023, but talk of full recovery is still premature, as 2019 wasn't a particularly good year with widespread protests impacting travel demand in the country.

The anticipation of the Cricket World Cup has sparked a surge in travel demand in India. By raising rates and expanding inventory, companies look to cash in on the cricket frenzy.

Global travel declined from June to July, similar to the downward trend we saw this time last year. Hong Kong was the only country with an uptick in Skift's Travel Health Index.

The Skift Travel Health Index shows that all regions have recovered, but Europe's travel revival appears to be rather slow. With 17 out of 22 countries having fully recovered and Europe being a popular summer hotspot, the global travel industry has geared up for a bright summer season.

Get a preview of our latest output from our Hotel Tech Benchmark data product. In this update, Skift Research looks closely at the best uses of digital marketing and advertising tools.

The Skift Travel Health Index continued to point to a full global travel recovery in May 2023. With 14 out of 22 countries having fully recovered and some overtaking pre-pandemic performance, we anticipate the index to soon significantly surpass 2019 levels.

For the first time since January 2020, the Skift Travel Health Index has topped 100, a sign that global tourism is now performing better than it did before the pandemic. Every region in our index showed growth over the last month.

The abundance of hotel booking channels calls for a tech-enabled distribution strategy. Central Reservation Systems help manage rates and availability across multiple booking channels and have the potential to become a $1.3 billion tech category.

India has all the cards to become the next mega source market for international travel, although major barriers still need to be overcome. The country has been performing extremely well in our Skift Travel Health Index.

With a growing share of hotel bookings made online, many hoteliers are reliant on third-party travel websites for booking volumes, and global visibility. Booking engines, website builders, and direct-booking tools can help these hotels find a better balance between first- and third-party bookings.