Coronavirus Travel News

Despite the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges, the travel industry’s recovery is proving to be remarkable.

Today's edition of Skift's daily podcast looks closer at the recovery of the travel industry that have allowed it to surpass spring 2019 benchmarks.

Today's edition of Skift's daily podcast looks closer at travel's coronavirus recovery, Airbnb's optimism, and Hilton's extended-stay moves.

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 April 2023 Travel Health Index celebrates the achievement of exceeding 2019 levels in global travel recovery. Several holidays observed globally during the month helped push regional performance. Except for North America and Europe, which are just shy of full recovery, all regions outperformed pre-pandemic levels.

Although not fully recovered completely, the travel industry gained substantial momentum at the start of the year. All regions have almost recovered from the pandemic blues, Asia Pacific being the only exception. With loosening travel restrictions and China reopening, we expect a stronger travel industry to be less uneven this year.

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at travel’s recovery path, Twitter’s increasing irrelevance for tourism, and Banff’s overtourism battles.

Skift Research is cautiously optimistic about travel's continued recovery in 2023, despite a growing likelihood of a recession in many countries. Travel is still under-indexed compared to the broader economy, and the reopening of Chinese borders provides a strong boost.

Economic worries might be catching up with the travel industry, but just in time China is starting to show signs of life.

Continuing uncertainties and headwinds suppressed growth in October, with the Skift Travel Health Index sitting around the 85 percent mark since June with little movement.