Report: Travelers to Take Fewer but Longer Trips in 2024

Photo source: ForwardKeys

Travelers are expected to take fewer – but longer – trips during the new year, according to a trends outlook report for 2024 travel and tourism by ForwardKeys.

The travel intelligence firm’s report is based on an analysis of detailed ticketing data for 2023, which reveals several insights into changing travel preferences and behaviours worldwide.

“With life back to normal after COVID-19, businesses in this sector need to be well-informed and prepared for the upcoming year,” ForwardKeys said.

Main trend: Less but longer trips

According to the report, a combination of higher travel costs, increased awareness of the impact of air travel, and domestic travel trends which emerged during the pandemic are shifting traveller preference away from multiple short getaways and towards longer, more meaningful travel experiences.

“Compared to 2019, short trips (1-3 nights) lost 4 percentage points globally in comparison to medium (4-13 nights) and long trips (14+ nights) — encouraging news for destinations looking to attract more ‘impactful’ visitors and promote less carbon-intensive travel,” says ForwardKeys.

ForwardKeys’ report includes another six trends expected for travel in 2024:

• Travellers prefer to stick together

Photo source: ForwardKeys

Shared experiences are important to many travellers, as illustrated by the resilience of family group travel — three to five passengers travelling together. Benchmarked against 2019, this segment has recovered the fastest across all global regions, especially in the Americas where it has already surpassed 2019 levels. Although slower to recover, couple travel is the second most resilient segment in every region, and only slightly behind family group travel in APAC and the Americas.

• Luxury beats economy worldwide

Photo source: Singapore Airlines

The recovery of demand for luxury experiences has outpaced regular travel options in APAC — which can be partly attributed to the “revenge travel” effect. But in the Americas and MEA, where this phase has passed, the recovery of demand for premium cabin classes continues to perform better than for economy seats — an indication that even during widespread cost-of-living concerns, high-income consumers remain resilient to pricing pressure.

• Flexible work drives offseason travel

Photo source: Rigas Hotel Skopelos

Traditionally, aside from climate, travel seasonality is most closely linked to work or school calendars, leading to predictable peaks and troughs. However, with the increased popularity of remote or hybrid work, certain demographics have the freedom to travel year-round, enabling them to take advantage of lower off-season prices and less crowded destinations. In 2023, the segment of US couples, for instance, shows better performance in January to May and September to December than in the summer season itself.

• Lead times back to pre-pandemic length

Photo source: ForwardKeys

Now that booking behaviour is no longer conditioned by travel restrictions, and consumer confidence is restored, booking patterns reflect pre-pandemic behaviour in Europe and MEA, where lead times for 2023 are on par with 2019. In APAC and the Americas, this recovery has been muted slightly — mostly by pricing pressure — with average lead times in each region remaining around 5 days longer than pre-COVID-19 for the time being, although the overall trend is towards parity.

• The future is digital for travel agencies

Photo source: Travelport

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant shift towards direct booking with airlines. In 2023, while direct bookings remain popular, the pendulum is starting to swing back, with growth in the share of bookings made via travel agencies over 2022. While this is encouraging, at this stage it’s not yet clear to what extent travel agencies will continue to recover market share. What is clear is that online agencies are recovering better than their high-street equivalents — reflecting broader commercial trends.

• Climate change matters long-term

While the summer of 2023 saw extreme temperatures, wildfires and floods in the Northern Hemisphere, the effect of climate-change-driven events on travel has so far been limited. Following events like the Rhodes wildfires, ticketing patterns returned to normal levels within a month. However, long term, climate change is expected to reshape travel preferences significantly as predicted temperature rises reduce summer demand in hotter destinations and increase the attractiveness of traditionally cooler regions.