Online Survey Points To Growing Travel Recovery

Traffic to prominent domains in the auto rental, hotel, and vacation rental sectors has been at or above levels recorded in those months in 2019, according to Similarweb’s 2022 Travel Industry Insights Report.

The top cruise domains are likewise on par with 2019 levels as of March, and airlines also are almost there, although traffic to online travel agents and metasearch sites is still down.

Alisha Kapur, Similarweb’s senior manager for travel and e-commerce, stated, “Looking at the remainder of 2022 and beyond, the positive momentum in travel should continue at an accelerated pace.”

Low-Cost Carrier Gains More Passengers: Because air travel is typically booked months in advance, airline website traffic is cited by Similarweb as a “useful proxy for demand” in that industry.

From the start of the pandemic in April 2020 to February 2022, mobile and desktop traffic to airline websites surged by 181 %, with low-cost airlines such as Ryanair, EasyJet, and Southwest gaining the passengers.

Similarweb data reveals that monthly traffic for Airbnb and Vrbo increased by 200 % and 330 %, respectively, between April 2020 and February 2022, and the research concludes that “this trend and secular shift to vacation home rentals are projected to continue in 2022 and beyond.”

While Airbnb remains the market leader, Kapur writes that Vrbo is increasing its market share, sustaining positive year-over-year traffic growth until 2021, and benefiting from marketing investment from parent firm Expedia Group.