Thanksgiving turkey, Black Friday deals and a desire for sunshine have driven a spectacular transatlantic rebound, says Travelport deputy chief executive John Elieson
With the United States finally lifting its unprecedented travel restrictions, visitors from the UK are eager to get back across the pond as soon as possible. What’s the hurry? A combination of Thanksgiving turkey, Black Friday deals and a desperation for sun.
Here in the UK, the last two years have seen some unprecedented measures of our own: international travel restrictions thwarting not one, but two summers’ worth of holiday plans, and who could forget, our three national lockdowns.
After a long (and fairly rainy) 21 months, fully vaccinated travellers from the UK are now allowed to travel to America, and it may come as no surprise that Brits are queuing up to get in.
With the data insights we have available at Travelport, we’re able to clearly see travel trends as they emerge. For example, when President Biden made his first travel announcement in September allowing fully vaccinated travellers from the UK and the EU back into the country starting in November, we saw searches for US-bound flights from the UK grow more than searches for US-bound flights from all the other European countries, combined.
The trend was the same with flight bookings. In the 24 hours following the announcement, the UK booked more US-bound flights than Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Denmark combined.
Things became clearer in October when President Biden gave the world a reopening date (today, November 8) and added even more countries to the ‘approved’ list, thirty-three to be precise. Still, the UK remained the number one country searching and booking flights to the US, resulting in a 108% increase in bookings from the week prior to the first announcement.
The UK continues to make great strides in its recovery efforts, and in the last few weeks, we’ve seen the recovery rate of outbound international travel reach 68% – the highest it’s been since the pandemic began. That, alone, is reason enough to book a celebratory jaunt. But what exactly is it that’s making America hotter than ever?
Driving forces
First of all, Brits have their bags packed and want to travel to the US now. After too many fits and starts, travellers are more comfortable with shorter booking windows. Not only was November 2021 the most popular month for US-bound travel from the UK, but today, 8 November, was the most popular departure date.
Secondly, nearly two years of isolation would make anyone crave some family time. Within 24 hours of President Biden’s second announcement, US-bound flight bookings for Thanksgiving weekend increased by 2,200%. Who’s to say if it’s the allure of a home-cooked meal, the thought of quality time with loved ones, or the incredible savings to be had from Black Friday deals that is making the siren song of the US so strong. Not to mention, the #LoveIsNotTourism campaign on social media that advocated for the removal of travel bans to reunite binational families.
Thirdly, let’s be honest – we’ve missed the sun. The US destination that ranked number one for travellers from the UK was Orlando. Pre-pandemic, this sunny locale would’ve been number two, but with the high degree of uncertainty that the first US travel announcement held, Brits hedged their bets and booked a trip to Florida in August 2022.
There’s a lot of reasons to visit the theme park capital of the world, but Disney World’s eighteen-month-long 50th Anniversary celebration is at the top of my list. Miami ranked number three for Brits, a destination that wasn’t even in the top five pre-pandemic.
Our excitement to travel to the US is indicative of our eagerness to travel overall, and I believe this is just the beginning. While leisure travel is hot and many of us are preparing for well-deserved holidays abroad, I hope we’ll see the same uptick in corporate travel at the beginning of 2022, in just a few months.
Global businesses are equally eager to reunite with their colleagues and customers, and with the US reopening its proverbial doors today, it gives the corporate sector (on both sides of the pond) something to be thankful for this American Thanksgiving.