Tag Archives: ForwardKeys

Olivier Ponti, Director of Intelligence & Marketing, Forwardkeys, shared that high airfare posed a significant obstacle recently due to strong demand and limited supply. As capacity returns, airfare is beginning to see a dip, although remaining 4% higher than 2019 levels by the end of April 2024. Despite some fluctuations, the global trend indicates a positive shift.

Juan A. Gomez, Head of Market Intelligence at ForwardKeys said, “As a source market, India has also managed to recover some ground and some regional leisure destinations are set to post growth on arrivals from India in Q2 versus 2019.”  

According to Forwardkeys, post-Covid, non-stop connections and simple flight itineraries have become decisive factors for travellers concerned about the inconveniences of varying travel requirements and the likelihood of flight disruptions. Despite travel restrictions now being lifted in most destinations around the world, this trend is expected to persist in 2023.  

ForwardKeys has revealed that India looks set to fully recover in the beginning of 2023. It said that historical and booked international arrivals in India between Jan 2022 and Mar 2023, as of 13 Oct 2022 will surpass the 2018/2019 levels by January 2023.

In terms of travel intent, the ForwardKeys analysts have observed a shift, with the shares of flight searches increasing by 6% from the Americas and Europe from January to February 2022. The Americas hold the largest number of intents to fly to India at 42% in February. This falls in line with the easing of travel restrictions from selected ‘Category A’ countries such as the USA, Canada, and EU member states on February 14. “Once again this simply highlights the importance of (or lack of) travel restrictions implemented by governments during this pandemic,” says Olivier Ponti, VP of Insights.

After the discovery of the Omicron variant, tickets for both arrivals and departures in India dived, however, arrivals have now slowly been recovering back to pre-omicron levels and departures are not far behind, with figures for the week commencing 3rd March at 19% and 58% vs 2019 for arrivals and departures. The latest travel data reveals that the top international source markets for India are Australia, the USA, and Ireland. 

India continues to have the largest share of inbound travellers to the APAC region, at 24.4% of total arrivals in Q1 as of 11 March. Not a bad result when considering the air ticketing data from ForwardKeys shows that international arrivals in APAC in Q1 was down by 86%. However, in terms of recovery India as a destination is performing at -59% vs 2019. The best performing region in APAC for on-the-book arrivals is Pakistan with a 0.2% increase vs the same period in 2019. The Maldives and Bangladesh are also showing strong signs of resilience.

ForwardKeys has revealed that Tickets for travel to key APAC destinations are on the rise. And it is India leading the way forward. India has recovered 80% of 2019’s level in the week of 5th March 2022. “The success behind India’s reactivation is the fact that India had announced in advance its reopening plan for this year, generating awareness and interest,” says Nan Dai, Market Analyst at ForwardKeys.

As predicted by ForwardKeys’ Forecast data, this year, the number of Russian outbound travel is expected to increase by 64% when compared to 2021, and 96% when compared to 2020. Regarding when we can expect it to recover to 2019 levels, Nan Dai, China Market Expert at ForwardKeys says: “Looking at the current pattern and pace for bookings, it is expected to recover to 2019 levels approximately in three to four years.” 

Investing in a sound domestic tourism plan with healthy airline promotions and tour operators in sync has its merits, claims ForwardKeys in a presentation at the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul, South Korea. Giving an example of China, the presentation mentioned that China reached pre-pandemic domestic arrival levels as early as September 2020, even with the pandemic in flagrant, thanks to teaming up its national public holidays with airline deals for couples (two for one offers) and the introduction of tax-free perks for shopping holidays to Hainan.