News

When some think of slow travel, they imagine a train which keeps stopping, a car stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic or a plane delayed countless hours. That’s one kind of slow travel. But there’s a much more fulfilling kind: travel in which you don’t jump from attraction to attraction or city to city; travel where you stroll, meander, and wander at snail’s pace to take in your surroundings.

Virtuoso, the prestigious global network specializing in luxury and experiential travel, has identified when, where and why the affluent will be venturing in 2022.

Younger travelers, both Millennials and Generations Z (called Zoomers), are planning more travel post-pandemic than older travelers, though the vast majority of all generations are planning at least one trip this year.

The pent-up demand for travel predicted throughout the height of the pandemic has arrived, according to American Express Travel president Audrey Hendley.

The travel industry registered one of its strongest months of recovery since the inception of our index, with performance up across all sectors and almost all countries. The war in Ukraine, however, is casting a long shadow over travel's performance moving into March.

Romeo Raabe won’t be taking a summer cruise this year. He was set to fly from Chicago to Amsterdam in August, then sail around the Norwegian fjords. But in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he and his wife became nervous about traveling to Europe and decided they “didn’t feel comfortable” going through with the trip.

Airlines scrambled to adapt to conflict in Europe on Thursday as Ukraine closed its airspace, fuel prices soared and carriers were urged to "exercise caution" deep inside Russia hours after Moscow's military invaded Ukraine.

From panic to opportunity in travel

The reckoning stage has passed. Destination marketers should actively and urgently tackle tourism engagement and education — because community-driven pushback is only going to increase. That could impact recovery and growth, with the future of the tourism workforce depending on it.

The heightened demand for long haul destinations is driven by the substantial levels of disposable income that many US travelers have.