Booking morale slammed

THE latest monthly figures from Resurg’s Travel Industry Recovery Monitor (TD 14 Apr) provide a stark confirmation of the impact that lockdowns in NSW and Victoria are having on consumer confidence, with both domestic and international booking numbers declining for every month since May.

The figures (pictured) show domestic bookings are sitting at just 20% of 2019 levels for Sep, while international booking numbers also languished at only 12% last month.

In terms of forward departures for travel through until Aug 2023, the top city pairs booked through travel agencies providing data for the Resurg platform included Sydney-Lord Howe Island, Broome-Perth and MackayBrisbane, indicating the strong propensity for intrastate travel as consumers continue to lack faith in border reopenings.

However, early data for Oct indicates a jump in some areas, particularly domestic cruises which have leapt to close to 70% of 2019 levels in the last few days.

Meanwhile the figures also showed that domestic airline travel bookings have continued to slide in Sep since a high back in Apr, down to only 25% of prepandemic levels and a decrease of 25 percentage points on Aug.

International air bookings were up slightly in Sep compared to Aug, notching 19% of 2019 levels.