Huge spike in travel sales triggered by UK PM’s announcement promises full rebound for the industry

Finally, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the travel industry. Boris Johnson’s recent announcement of (possibly) resuming travel to and from the UK starting June has had a dramatic effect on airline and online travel agencies. We are witnessing a live case study of resurgence. Flight bookings jumped by 69% the following day according to price comparison site Skyscanner. Travel agencies TUI UK and Jet2 reported booking surges of 500% and 600%, respectively. The surge is also reflected in our own data revealing a 262% spike in our travel segment.

Interestingly, EasyJet has reported that sales of holiday packages have significantly outperformed ticket sales, growing by 630% in the wake of the news. Holiday packages offer more legal protection to consumers than flight tickets, so this could be seen as an indication of changing consumer habits following the huge numbers of cancelled flights during the pandemic.

“We’re setting out on, what I hope and believe, is a one-way road to freedom.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

All eyes are now on the UK, spurring hope among travelers and the entire travel industry. Now, new challenges arise with the huge influx of bookings to be expected, so having a payment tech partner with proven experience in overcoming obstacles of global pandemic proportions is more essential than ever.

“Customers are eager to start travelling again and are increasingly confident about travel conditions (e.g. vaccines being rolled out, IATA Travel Pass Initiative). This also announces the likely upcoming rebound of the leisure travel industry. In this context, merchants in the travel space need to be ready and ensure they can support new customer expectations and behavior thanks to optimized payment solutions and services.”

Pascal Burg, director at Edgar, Dunn & company.

Our research showed us that winning back consumer trust is a key factor to a successful rebound, and this was tackled through providing pandemic-friendly innovations catalyzed by new consumer expectations such as “Pay with Installments”, “Hold my Fare, “Escrow Price Hold”, and “Buy Now, Pay Later”. Additionally, robust payout features for issuing refunds gave us extra help in avoiding chargebacks, which have been a major source of revenue loss for travel merchants in 2020. If you’re interested in reading a full account of how payment innovations enable travel merchants’ recovery, you can download the white paper “Redefining Travel Payments in the post-COVID-19 Era”, produced by Nuvei and EDC, in collaboration with Visa.

For more information about how payment technology can help your travel business adjust to take full advantage of the imminent surge in travel bookings, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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