The travel industry is set for a robust recovery as confident consumers increase leisure spending and c-suites send more employees on the road to meet clients.
This is expected to accelerate the pace of growth of the global multi-trillion-dollar industry, directly and indirectly responsible for 9.5% of global GDP last year and some 266 million jobs.
Already starting to outpace other significant sectors, including financial and business services, the industry is on track to grow another 4.3% in 2014, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), buoyed by higher consumer spending.
?Profitability for travel companies should also start to edge up, bringing opportunities for further job creation in the process,? said WTTC chief executive David Scowsill.
The travel sector has already been trending higher. Travel booking site Orbitz (OWW) on Monday reported a 4% increase in revenue as bookings increased, while the firm forecast higher-than-expected sales for the current quarter.
Marriott International (MAR) last month said increased demand in North America triggered higher room rates, leading to a better-than-expected rise in first-quarter profit.
Expedia (EXPE) last week beat bottom-line per-share estimates by a penny and narrowed its quarterly loss as hotel stays and airline bookings pushed revenues up 19% to $1.2 billion.
On Tuesday, TripAdvisor (TRIP) boasted a close to 10% increase in first-quarter earnings as sales increased 22% and traffic to the site soared 44%.
And on Thursday, Priceline (PCLN) reported a 36% jump in first-quarter earnings on strong international bookings that helped lift revenues 26% to $1.64 billion. Its second-quarter view was light, but that seems more a reflection of its ?name-your-own-price? tool that it says could weigh on sales growth, rather than slowing bookings.
The deals market around these tourism companies has also been heating up, signaling growing confidence in tourism boardrooms.
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Source:? Jennifer Booton (2014), Trillion Dollar Travel Sector Set to Expand, Fox Business?http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2014/05/08/travel-sector-to-expand-as-bookings-accelerate/ published May 08, 2014. Viewed May 09, 2014.