Skift Take
The major hotels and OTA companies reported strong earnings this month, signaling robust travel demand despite economic uncertainties. The companies most skewed to Asia now offer the greatest potential for growth and share price gains.
Many of the major hotels and online travel agencies have reported financial results for the first half of the year. The common message: Demand for travel remains robust, even as there is worry about an uncertain global economy and recession fears.
While the U.S. led the global travel recovery coming out of the pandemic, the strength in global demand has now shifted to Europe and Asia. In Europe, increasing demand for international travel from U.S. travelers continues to allow expanding prices, while Asia benefits from a surge in demand from the first waves of unrestricted travel in the region.
Asia, which for so long was the laggard in the global recovery, is now posting the strongest year-on-year performance of any region. It's largely following a similar playbook to what we saw in the U.S. and Europe – where excess consumer savings and huge pent-up demand saw a surge in bookings and price