travel services research

Rebooting customer experience to bring back the magic of travel

In the 2020 report, “ The travel industry turned upside down ,” McKinsey & Company partnered with Skift Research to document the unprecedented impact that COVID-19 had on the travel sector. 1 Seth Borko, Wouter Geerts, and Haixia Wang, “ The travel industry turned upside down: Insights, analysis, and actions for travel executives ,” September 22, 2021, McKinsey.com. One year later, we find that the travel sector is bouncing back—yet recovery still has a long way to go.

Although 2021 performance has improved considerably, the Skift Recovery Index shows it is still 35 percent below pre-pandemic levels globally. Furthermore, different geographies tell vastly different recovery stories as a result of varying travel restrictions, COVID-19 case counts, and the strength of domestic travel markets. North America shows strong recovery performance, while many Asian countries are showing lower recovery scores as they remain far more cautious in opening their borders (Exhibit 1).

In this report, McKinsey and Skift Research assess the current traveler experience and find mixed signals. While surveys and customer satisfaction rating analyses show many travelers are satisfied with their experiences—some, surprisingly, more so than before COVID-19—a deeper look at the data reveals troubling undercurrents.

Despite high satisfaction ratings, negative sentiment is on the rise. 2 “ US consumer sentiment during the coronavirus crisis, McKinsey survey results ,” May 13, 2021, McKinsey.com. Furthermore, operational capacity is strained, staffing challenges are widespread, airline complaints are up, rental cars are hard to come by, and hotel amenities and services remain substantially pared down.

Given the seeming contradiction between performance and satisfaction, the true situation may simply be that leisure travelers are happy to be on the road again after a year of being stuck at home. As travel volumes increase and business travelers return, there is potential for a wave of customer dissatisfaction—at a time when loyalty is up for grabs.

Will travel players manage to reboot customer experience before travelers’ “honeymoon phase” comes to an end? Or will thinning customer patience shock the system?

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Customer experience is the challenge of the recovery.

Whether it’s more tailored products, greater digital parity with analog services, or faster turnaround, customer expectations of what great customer experience (CX) looks like have shifted significantly. COVID-19 only accelerated these trends, leaving the travel ecosystem in a game of catch-up.

In this changing landscape, travel companies that prioritize CX can gain loyalty, build resilience, and future-proof their businesses.

Yet while travel executives may believe their companies deliver strong CX today, our research indicates there is room for improvement. Common challenges include inconsistency in CX across products, services, and digital; difficulty predicting customers’ sentiment without having to ask them; and time lags in going to market with updates, releases and enhancements.

This report explores the critical role of CX in the travel industry at this pivotal moment in time. Travel executives can ask themselves:

• Do you believe your customer experience is consistently high across product, service and digital? Research shows that you can aim higher.
• Do you know the sentiment of your customers without ever having to ask them? Research shows that you can understand your customers more deeply.
• Do you move as fast today as you did when the pandemic first struck? Research shows that you can move faster.
• Ultimately, how can you be more intentional about unlocking the value of customer experience and bringing back the magic of travel?

Travel companies are still absorbing COVID-19’s financial impact, and investing in CX now may seem too great a burden for many of them. But companies that prioritize CX during a downturn stand to outperform their competition for years to come—as McKinsey research on the 2007–09 downturn has shown. 3 Dago Diedrich, Nicholas Northcote, Tido Röder, and Karolina Sauer-Sidor, “Strategic resilience during the COVID-19 crisis,” March 2, 2021, McKinsey.com. Indeed, wise investment in CX may be key to the industry’s survival, and flourishing, in a post-pandemic world.

There are mixed signals around the current customer experience

As travel volumes are starting to return in many parts of the world, stories have begun to surface about problematic travel experiences. 4 Elaine Glusac, “6 ways to tame airline nightmares,” New York Times , August 24, 2021, nytimes.com; Hannah Sampson, “Tourists in Hawaii are driving U-Hauls because rental cars are so expensive,” Washington Post , May 3, 2021, washingtonpost.com. Has the travel experience in fact gotten worse? The answer is not clear cut as there are mixed signals around the current customer experience.

On the surface, traveler satisfaction does not appear to have declined during the pandemic

Perhaps surprisingly, Skift Research’s Traveler Tracker survey found that more than 80 percent of leisure travelers were satisfied with their Summer 2021 flight and hotel experiences—indeed, nearly half rated their trips as better than those they’d experienced pre-COVID-19 (Exhibit 2). 5 Skift Travel Tracker, July 2021. Similarly, a Travelsify analysis of over 60 million hotel guest reviews found minimal changes in review scores, and a Transparent analysis of vacation rental property ratings found that current scores are comparable to 2019 levels. 6 Travelsify Hotel Brand DNA®, January 2018 to December 2019 and January 2020 to July 2021; Transparent analysis from January to August 2019, 2020 and 2021.

These surprising “satisfaction” rating findings may be the result of leisure travelers simply being happy to be on the road again.

Despite steady satisfaction ratings, negative sentiment is on the rise

As time passes, travelers may become less willing to lower their expectations and accept sub-par service under the guise of “safety.” A sentiment analysis of Tripadvisor reviews from the United States, Europe, and Asia found the emotional intensity of customer reviews increased considerably from 2019 to 2021 (Exhibit 3). Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the pandemic-induced impacts to hotel operations, the shift in sentiment was driven primarily by more negative views on cleanliness, food standards, and service.

Business travelers may not be as understanding as leisure travelers have been

Business travelers typically travel more frequently than leisure travelers, and often have higher expectations; they have long complained at higher rates than leisure travelers, and COVID-19 has only exacerbated this divide. The American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that 38 percent of business passengers complained to the airline, double the rate of leisure travelers. 7 American Customer Satisfaction Index, ACSI Travel Report 2020–2021, April 27, 2021, theacsi.org. Particularly as corporate travel volumes return, companies may see a decline in satisfaction.

There is a potential for a wave of dissatisfied customers at a time when loyalty is up for grabs

In fact, a McKinsey consumer survey found that customers are twice as likely to try new brands and experiences as a result of COVID-19 and 75 percent of US consumers tried a different store, website or brand during the pandemic. 8 “ US consumer sentiment during the coronavirus crisis, McKinsey survey results ,” May 13, 2021, McKinsey.com. This is particularly important in the travel sector with its strong reliance on loyalty programs.

Now is the time for companies who have maintained their satisfaction and performance levels to reprioritize CX and gain an even greater competitive advantage.

A travel boom is looming. But is the industry ready?

Three strategies to transform your customer experience.

This report presents three strategies for travel entities to use to transform CX during the recovery. First, aim higher than your competitors, and aspire to bring back the magic of travel. Second, look forward , using a robust measurement toolkit to understand your customers better. Last, move fast , leveraging a nimble, agile organization to implement insights swiftly).

Aim high—aspire to bring back the magic of travel

The travel industry once set the gold standard for CX, with the offer of memorable journeys and adventures. Travel companies should aspire to bring back the magic of travel by first expanding their view of CX from being human-centered to include digital as well.

Then travel companies can build an emotional connection that exceeds customer expectations. Travel brands must sell the way they make their guests feel : well rested in advance of an important meeting; awestruck at a beautiful destination; recharged after a getaway; appreciated after a heartwarming, personal farewell as they disembark from a plane on the way home. Companies can build these emotional connections by leveraging the science behind delight: While satisfaction is a rational assessment of reality minus expectations; delight is emotional, and is experienced as a result of joy and surprise. 9 Adapted based on research by Chitturi et al. (2008), Kim et al. (2015), Oliver et al. (1997), and Zeithaml et al. (1996). Travel companies can aspire to delight, not just satisfy.

Look forward—understand your customers better

To deliver on ambitious aspirations, travel companies need a deep understanding of their customers. This can be challenging because, as COVID-19 demonstrated, customer needs and expectations are constantly shifting. Travel companies can build a more robust measurement toolkit by leveraging data already at their fingertips. The next frontier of measurement is knowing what your customers want and need without asking.

A more mature toolkit should be holistic and aim to measure the majority of customers by leveraging internal and external data such as social media, booking and mobile systems, and operational systems. Now more than ever, travel companies cannot afford to spend on low-impact interventions, so a toolkit should be prioritized and pinpoint impactful touch points along the end-to-end journey. It should also be predictive and anticipate satisfaction and lifetime value in real time. For instance, companies can apply machine learning to large and dispersed data sets, creating predictive models of sentiment and behavior. Finally, a toolkit should be prescriptive and use data to guide interventions that maximize ROI.

Move fast—implement insights quicker

Real-time insights are only impactful if companies can act on them quickly. As more travel companies invest in measurement toolkits and CX systems, the next frontier lies less in the data and insights, and more in the speed at which that data can be put to use. For many travel companies, COVID-19 was a crash course in agility. As global travel resumes, it is important to harness the crisis-induced momentum through two organizational strategies: breaking down silos to ensure that bureaucracy does not diminish CX, and iterating journeys with customers and employees.

CX is more than a feeling, more than a department, more than a phase in the customer journey. Rather, it is a customer-centric way of doing business, one that requires analytical leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous iteration to deliver great user experience.

Travel companies, with their legacy of strong emotional relationships with consumers, have much to gain from fostering excellent CX, aided by the power of modern digital systems to measure impact and predict behavior. Those who fail to take advantage of this moment may risk falling behind. With changing consumer preferences after COVID-19, CX is an area where businesses can shine: building performance uplift and standing out from the competition—while bringing back the magic of travel for customers.

Vik Krishnan is a partner in McKinsey’s San Francisco office; Kevin Neher is a senior partner in the Denver office; Maurice Obeid is a partner in the New York office; Ellen Scully is a consultant in the Seattle office; and Jules Seeley is a senior partner in the Boston office.

The authors would like to thank Filipa Douma, Jasperina de Vries, Haixia Wang, Seth Borko, and Wouter Geerts for their contributions.

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U.S. Travel Arrangement and Reservation Services Sector: Skift Research Estimates 2020

Related reports, report overview.

We launched our first U.S. passenger airline sector estimates and U.S. accommodation sector estimates reports in 2019. We will continue to size up the travel industry in 2020. In this report, we turn to the travel arrangement and reservation services sector. This is a complex sector that includes travel agencies, tour operators, online reservation and booking services, ticket offices, convention and visitors bureaus, etc. We estimate that the total travel arrangement and reservation services sector in the U.S. generated $54.8 billion revenue in 2019 and forecast the sector to grow 5% to reach $57.5 billion in revenue in 2020. Travel agencies are still the largest subsector in this industry. With an estimated $23.3 billion in revenue, travel agencies will account for 40.4% of industry revenue in 2020.

We arrive at our proprietary estimates by analyzing our internal consumer survey data, relevant data aggregated in our previous reports, as well as many reputable sources, including the U.S. Economic Census, U.S. Census Service Annual Survey (SAS) and Quarterly Services Survey (QSS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey (CPS) and Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey, and Statista.

What You'll Learn From This Report

• U.S. travel arrangement and reservation services sector market size estimates, 2015–2020
• U.S. market size estimates for travel agencies, 2015–2020
• U.S. market size estimates for tour operators, 2015–2020
• U.S. market size estimates for ticket and reservation services, 2015–2020
• Key operational and performance estimates for 2019, including number of companies, properties, and corresponding revenue
• Employment statistics for travel agents, tour operators, reservation and transportation ticket agents, and travel clerks, 2014–2018
• Analysis of U.S. Economic Census data

Positive Market Outlook for 2020

In our year-end Skift Global Travel Economy Outlook 2020 report, we forecast 2020 to be another solid year of growth for travel, both in the U.S. and globally. While acknowledging the downside risks that might lead to the economic slowdown, we believe the fundamentals remain strong for the global economy. Translating into travel, we anticipate further expansion across the board in hospitality, online travel, and airlines.

However, as we are working on this report, the impact of the coronavirus outbreak has just started to show in global travel. Flights are canceled and borders are closed. The long-term effect of this depends on how the epidemic plays out in the coming weeks or months.

Our 2020 forecast doesn’t factor in the impact of coronavirus. As more information comes in, we will evaluate the short-term and long-term effect of it in our future reports.

Overall, the travel arrangement and reservation services sector has experienced strong growth for the past few years and outperformed other major sectors. We believe this trend will continue in the next few years. After near double-digit growths for two years, we estimate that the sector generated $54.8 billion revenue in 2019 and will add nearly $3 billion in 2020 and bring total revenue to $57.5 billion.

Core Segments

Unlike other major travel sectors, the travel arrangement and reservation services sector is comprised of a wider array of subsectors, some of which provide services that cut across different sectors, while others are more niche and focused.

We follow the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) in categorizing and estimating market sizes for these sectors.

Travel agencies are companies primarily engaged in acting as agents in selling travel, tour, and accommodation services to the general public and commercial clients. The traditional brick-and-mortar travel agencies and the online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia.com and Booking.com all fall under this sector. This is the largest sector under travel arrangement and reservation. With an estimated total revenue of $22.1 billion in 2020, travel agencies accounted for 40% of the total market.

Ticket and reservation services are companies primarily engaged in ticket selling, reservations, and booking services. This is another big sector not far behind travel agencies. We forecast the ticketing and booking services to generate $17.1 billion revenue in 2020, making up 30% of the total sector revenue.

Tour operators are companies primarily engaged in arranging and assembling tours, including tours that are sold through travel agencies and wholesale tour operators. As the third-largest sector, tour operator companies are expected to bring in $8.3 billion revenue in 2020, a 5.7% increase over 2019.

Convention and visitors bureaus are companies and organizations primarily engaged in marketing and promoting communities and facilities to businesses and leisure travelers through a range of activities, such as assisting organizations in locating meeting and convention sites, providing travel information on area attractions, lodging accommodations, restaurants, providing maps, and organizing group tours of local historical, recreational, and cultural attractions. We forecast this sector to generate $2.7 billion in 2020, a 2.8% increase over 2019.

Number of Companies

For 2019, we estimate there were nearly 17,000 travel arrangement and reservation service companies in the U.S. Despite the concentration of a few big companies, the sector is highly fragmented. The average annual revenue per company is $3.2 million. Stripping off the multi-billion-dollar few, this number would be much lower. And on average, each company runs 1.5 establishments.

Types of Consumers

Travel management companies, which fall under travel agencies, as well as convention and visitors bureaus, are the biggest travel providers for corporate and government travel. Other than these business types, the sector largely serves individual consumers. Overall, about two-thirds of revenues from the travel arrangement and reservation services sector came from household consumers and individuals in 2019, four percentage points higher than in 2013.

Economic Census Data

The U.S. Economic Census, which measures a large range of operational and performance metrics of all businesses every five years, provides the most robust information and valuable benchmarks for every business sector. Even though there is a dire need for more publicly available data and improvement in timely data release, we believe the historical data— with the most recent year being 2012 — still has a lot of value in looking at the fundamentals of each vertical. We will add corresponding comparative data after the release of the 2017 Economic Census.

In 2012, there were only 34 travel arrangement and reservation companies with annual revenue above $100 million. Yet that 0.2% of total companies made up 42% of total sector revenue. This is further evidence of the extreme concentration on the one end and the extreme long tail of the sector on the other end.

The 2012 Economic Census breaks down very detailed product line revenues. Commission and fees were the largest revenue source, contributing to 54% of total sector revenue. And of all the travel arrangement and reservation service companies, 77% generated revenues through charging commission and fees. Trip planning services and packaged tour services combined were the second largest revenue source.

We will delve into the key performance and operational metrics of each sector below.

Travel Agencies

The bleak decline of brick-and-mortar travel agencies and big brands spending tons of marketing money driving direct bookings might have impacted certain companies or segments. The sector as a whole has been posing healthy growth for the past few years. From 2015 to 2019, U.S. travel agencies grew by $6 billion in revenue.

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)

Thanks to the rise of online travel agencies, travel is among the earliest consumer sectors shifting to e-commerce. As we presented in our Skift Global Travel Economy Outlook 2020 report of the U.S. Census Bureau data, 46% of travel arrangement and reservation services revenues were made online in 2017.

Two decades since the first online travel agency started business, the OTA sector is still holding strong. After years of consolidation and service expansion, Expedia Group and Booking Holdings have established and secured their duopoly status in the OTA space. Collectively, the two conglomerates accounted for 37% of travel agency revenues and 15% of the entire travel arrangement and reservation services revenue in the U.S. in 2018.

We estimate that by the end of 2019, there were about 10,000 travel agency companies and 16,000 local branches for these companies. The average annual revenue of a travel agency was only $2.1 million, skewed by the long tail of this business sector.

Employment Status

We sought and identified two sources for employment data. One is the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey which collects data from businesses on wage and salary workers. The other is the Current Population Survey (CPS) which collects data from individuals and households on labor force participation. In theory, the two sets of data should match for waged and salaried workers and the CPS data would have an additional layer on the self-employed, contracted, and other non-salaried types of employment. However, due to different sample sizes and methodologies, the two datasets don’t match up. What we present below is a rough estimate of the total employment number and the non-waged number deducted from it. Nonetheless, it paints a broad picture of the sector.

Give or take, there are about 20% of travel agents that are not on a company’s payroll. The travel agent occupation is heavily skewed towards women and the older population. In 2018, 86% of U.S. travel agents were women and the median age was 52 years old.

Economic Census data

There were only 10 travel agencies with annual revenue above $100 million in 2012. However, these 10 companies accounted for 35% of total sector revenue.

Commissions and fees are the main revenue sources for travel agencies, accounting for 63% of the sector revenue in 2012. Trip planning services made up another 28% of the revenue.

Ticket and Reservation Services

Ticket and reservation services encompasses a large variety of companies providing travel-related reservation and booking services. Ticket offices of all travel verticals (airlines, car rentals, cruises, hotels, rail, museums, etc.), booking services, reservation services, etc. all fall under this segment. In 2019, we estimate that the ticket and reservation services sector in the U.S. generated $16 billion revenue. We expect a 5.2% increase and a total of $17.1 revenue for the sector in 2020.

We estimate that there were about 1,700 ticket and reservation service companies in the U.S. in 2019, which is a very small number compared with other major travel sectors. And the segment also stands out in average company size. Revenue per company averaged at $9.6 million, much higher than travel agencies.

Because there is a lot of gray area in terms of what falls under travel clerks, we believe how individuals report their occupations in the Current Population Survey (CPS) is not as accurate as the business reporting in the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey. So we only include the waged employment data from OES in the chart below. There were about 132,000 individuals working as ticket agents and travel clerks in 2018. Women made up 59% of the workforce and the median age was 41 years old.

In 2012, there were 21 companies with annual revenues at $100 million and above. And the combined revenues of these companies made up 73% of the total sector revenue.

Given that ticket and reservation service is the core product of the sector, 92% of the revenue generated by the sector came from commissions and fees in 2012. And within that, event tickets, domestic lodging, and airline tickets had the biggest revenue shares.

Tour Operators

The fall of Thomas Cook Group in the UK in 2019 is often attributed to the declining interest in packaged tours from the consumer side. But a deeper analysis shows that it’s more a strategic and operational failure that should be blamed (see Skift’s Debt, Egos and Bad Decisions: How Thomas Cook Failed to Adapt to a New Era of Travel for more details). While it’s true that the packaged tour in the U.S. has never been as popular as in the European markets and there was a period of waning interest in packaged tours, there have been signs of renewed or new (in the U.S.) appetite for it in the past few years.

The U.S. tour operators segment saw double-digit growth in both 2017 and 2018. We estimate the sector to further grow 5.7% in 2020, reaching $8.3 billion in total revenue.

We estimate that by the end of 2019, there were nearly 25,000 tour operator companies in the U.S. And the average annual revenue was only $660K per company.

In line with the rapid revenue growth in 2017 and 2018, there was a spike in tour and travel guide employment at the same time. Waged employment for tour and travel guides jumped 11% to 46,000 and total employment jumped 28% to 68,000 in 2017. In 2018, women accounted for 44% of the total employment and the median age was 39.

In 2012, there were only three tour operator companies with annual revenue above $100 million and the combined revenue of these three companies only made up 9% of the sector revenue.

Arranging pre-packaged international trips was the biggest revenue source for the sector. In 2012, this service alone accounted for 51% of the entire sector revenue.

Convention and Visitors Bureaus

Convention facilities and services and sightseeing tours are the core revenue sources for convention and visitors bureaus (CVB). As with other travel arrangement and reservation services sectors, this sector has seen steady growth in the past few years. We forecast the sector to grow 2.8% and generate $2.7 billion revenue in 2020.

We estimate that there were about 1,200 destination marketing organizations or CVBs in 2019 and on average, each organization generated $2.2 million revenue through travel arrangement services.

In 2012, convention planning and assistance accounted for 47% of the CVB revenue and visitor information and sightseeing tour service accounted for 39%.

Methodology

Skift’s travel arrangement and reservation services sector estimates are based on Skift Research’s analysis of our internal consumer survey data, relevant data aggregated in our previous reports, as well as many reputable sources, including the U.S. Economic Census, U.S. Census Service Annual Survey (SAS) and Quarterly Services Survey (QSS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey (CPS) and Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey, and Statista.

Further Reading

• Skift Research, Skift Global Travel Economy Outlook 2020
• Skift, Debt, Egos and Bad Decisions: How Thomas Cook Failed to Adapt to a New Era of Travel

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Travel Agencies & Services Industry Profile

Excerpt from travel agencies & services industry profile.

Companies in this industry arrange travel and traveler accommodations and include travel agents, tour operators, and other travel services like time-share exchanges, visitors' bureaus, and ticket offices. Major companies include American Express Travel, Booking Holdings, CWT, Expedia Group, and Sabre (all based in the US), as well as BCD Travel (the Netherlands), China International Travel Service (China), HIS Co Ltd (Japan), and TUI Group (Germany).

Annual revenue from worldwide tourism, which includes travel agency is expected to reach about $290 billion in 2023, according to Statista. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the global economy could lose more than $2 billion due to the effects of COVID-19 on international arrivals.

The US travel services industry includes about 21,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $55 billion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by business and leisure travel, which depends on the economy. The profitability of individual companies depends on marketing. Large companies have an advantage in being able to provide a wider range of services, especially to corporate customers, and to afford sophisticated websites. Small companies can compete effectively by providing service to a few large customers, specializing in a service niche, or serving a local market. The US industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 50% of revenue.

Two major factors have shaped the industry in recent years: sophisticated pricing ...

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The National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) functions as the U.S. federal tourism office. A core responsibility is to collect, analyze, and disseminate international travel and tourism statistics. As a result, NTTO is charged with managing, improving, and expanding the system to fully account and report the impact of travel and tourism in the United States.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Effect of Covid-19 pandemic on tourist travel risk and management perceptions

Roles Writing – original draft

Affiliation Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Pengkalan Chepa, Malaysia

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation School of E-Commerce, Jiujiang University, Jujiang, Jiangxi, China

Roles Funding acquisition

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, China

Roles Methodology

Affiliation School of Management, Jiujiang University, Jujiang, Jiangxi, China

• Muhammad Khalilur Rahman, 
• Md. Abu Issa Gazi, 
• Miraj Ahmed Bhuiyan, 
• Md. Atikur Rahaman

• Published: September 1, 2021
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486
• Reader Comments

This study aims to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions. Driven on the effect of the pandemic, we investigate tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and its effect on society using a sample of 716 respondents. The data was collected through social media platforms using a representative sampling method and analyzed applying the PLS-SEM tool. The findings reveal that Covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected travel risk and management perceptions. Travel risk and management perception had a significant association with risk management, service delivery, transportation patterns, distribution channels, avoidance of overpopulated destinations, and hygiene and safety. The results also identified the mediating effect of travel risk and management perceptions. The finding of this study contributes to tourism crises and provides future research insights in the travel and tourism sector and response to change tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions in the post-covid recovery period.

Citation: Rahman MK, Gazi MAI, Bhuiyan MA, Rahaman MA (2021) Effect of Covid-19 pandemic on tourist travel risk and management perceptions. PLoS ONE 16(9): e0256486. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486

Editor: Bing Xue, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, GERMANY

Received: April 5, 2021; Accepted: August 6, 2021; Published: September 1, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Rahman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and supporting information files.

Funding: This research was supported by the School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, 21 luntou Road, Guangzhou, China.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The world tourism industry is facing the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions are crucial matter in their decision to travel destinations during the ongoing uncertainty of Covid-19 epidemic. Tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions can influence their psychological behavior for travel to destinations [ 1 , 2 ] Tourists can view their travel risk and management issues differently due to the spread of the existing pandemic. Tourists will avoid visiting destinations if they consider it risky [ 3 ]. Tourists’ travel risk and management are associated with tourism destinations, which is multidimensional where the outcomes are uncertain due to the impact of Covid-19. Therefore, it is difficult to recognize the common risk and management dimensions for developing a theoretical foundation based on the tourists’ risk and management perceptions and incorporating their outcomes. However, due to having a crucial concept of travel risk during the Covid-19 pandemic, this study has paid attention to explore and evaluate the tourists travel risk and management perceptions associated with the tourism attractions.

The Covid-19 pandemic has ruined all the previous narratives on development. Lockdowns at the largest scale in human history have imposed by governments around the world to control the spread of the pandemic. The consequences of this pandemic could change many aspects of human life and business including tourism management as almost half of the global population adopted restrictions on movement at an unprecedented scale. The Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. Co stands for corona, Vi for a virus, and D for the disease. This disease refers to as 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV. The impact of the novel Covid-19 pandemic is expected to have antagonistic results on the tourism sector, and the economy worldwide [ 4 ]. The economic estimations are foreseeing diminished financial development and showing negative attitudes to residents from countries most intensely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic [ 5 ]. The Covid-19 pandemic started at Wuhan in China in December 2019 [ 6 , 7 ] and other countries in February 2020. It has various effects and countries around the world are looking for a sustainable development approach to mitigate its negative impact. The pandemic is calamitous for recovering the economy of every country, nonexistent the travel industry, and social angles including long-term health issues in those affected by the infection and losses the friends and family. The effect of Covid-19 has mental effects [ 8 ] and it appears to be essential to identify them appropriately and address these issues to directly control the spread of infection [ 6 ].

Societal wellbeing or safety measures through lockdowns can control the spreading of infections [ 5 ]. However, when such safety measures are excessively strict, they can have negative impacts on developing the tourism industry, interruption of economic development, and increase the unemployment rate. It is reported that the business world today is directly or indirectly impacted by different external factors such as financial, sociocultural, global, political, and technological [ 4 ]. The changes in these factors lead to a change in business performance in industry in the region-specific or worldwide. The world is aware of the Covid-19 pandemic and its social outcomes remain ambiguous [ 9 ]. Although China, the United States and other developed countries have produced vaccines and started vaccination, most of the developing countries are struggling for getting the vaccine for protection against the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic. There is a lack of healthcare safety and security in many countries regarding handling Covid-19 patients, lack of doctors, a lacuna of vaccine, and testing facility. Covid-19 is a global phenomenon, and it may appear soon as an established external factor in curricula on strategic management for business performance and emerging tourism marketing.

Other factors are mostly controllable by social frameworks, and individuals [ 4 ]. Pandemics are generally uncontrollable because they appear suddenly everywhere. The travel and tourism sector are particularly motivated by changes in external factors and given the idea of political and financial systems. The travel industry involves various sectors and contributes to these areas’ advancement and the global value of tourism management. The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism destination, tourists’ behavior, and their preference is irrespective of district or nationality. The earlier studies [ 9 , 10 ] have confined the connection between pandemic and tourism regarding risk. Few studies [ 11 ] analyzed the tourism restrictions on the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and explained how destinations decided to react to a pandemic. Travel and tourism are one of the largest industries all over the world [ 12 , 13 ], however, despite this industry, the hospitality and tourism industry is currently highly sensitive to significant shocks (e.g. Covid-19 pandemic). It is crucial to investigate how the tourism industry will recover from the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rapid transmission and high mortality rate of the Covid-19 pandemic lead to the scientific community monitoring its spread of infection [ 14 ]. The pandemic encourages the continuation of social quarantine and adverse financial effects. The clinicians and researchers have expressed their concerns about the negative effects of the Covid-19 epidemic on the health of people and behaviors [ 15 ]. Recently a few studies discussed Covid-19 from healthcare perspectives [ 5 , 8 ]. Some studies focus on the risk management of the Covid-19 pandemic [ 16 , 17 ]. Some researchers [ 18 ] focus on the travel and tourism crisis while others [ 10 ] proposed the necessary procedures that prevent potential biosecurity threats because of worldwide pandemic outbreaks. There is a study that [ 19 ] focused on the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on Chinese residents’ lifestyle and travel, which leads to enlightening long-term patterns of behavior and tourism destination. A few countries have made explicit strides in suspending their visa on arrival strategy and initiating strict travel bans to control the spread of the pandemic. Another research study [ 20 ] reported that the Covid-19 epidemic has carried economic collapse to Singapore, Bali, Barcelona, Rome, and other counties that were once tourists’ attractions. The effects of this outbreak on the travel and tourism industry in the world have been extremely debated by industry practitioners, the tourism department of the government, and the academic community.

Most of the countries all over the world are decided to close their borders and postpone their airline’s services due to the Covid-19 pandemic. United Nations World Tourism Organization reported that there is a global crisis in the tourism industry and Covid-19 is responsible for a decline of international tourist arrivals that estimate the losses of US$300–450 billion [ 19 ]. This is surprisingly more terrible than the effect of SARS in 2003 [ 21 ]. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected many countries and the global tourism industry faces terrible situations in which business has been closed, lives have been lost, and people are on high alert for social safety. The earlier studies [ 8 , 9 , 22 , 23 ] indicate that the academic community timely provides research for everyone’s benefit over the healthcare, sociologies, and hard science. Concerning this research, the existing study aims to investigate the social impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on tourism destination and tourists’ behaviors as well as their preferences during this pandemic. This investigation likewise explains how global travel and hospitality practices are probably going to change because of the pandemic. This study depends on the synthesis of early literature and sources of published news and reports related to tourism management, marketing, healthcare, and tourist behavior. Based on these, the study draws a conceptual model for empirical assessment. For the post-Covid-19 and business recovery, these insights will assist tourism operators, managers, marketers, and industry practitioners tailor their tourism products and services.

Literature review

Underpinning theory.

This study uses the concept of pathogen-stress theory [ 24 ] to evaluate the travel risk and management perception due to the Covid-19 uncertainty and determining human behaviors in societal issues. Some authors have [ 25 ] explored the influence of pathogen thereat in the context of Covid-19 epidemics. The personality traits are predicted by a parasite-stress theory of human sociality that highlights the infection risks related to the interaction with conspecifics [ 24 , 26 ]. The travel risk and management perception refer to the risk of human-to-human transmission. The infection risks are connected to the openness of human contact. The increased contact with many group members implies a higher risk of human-to-human transmission. According to this theory, when people develop in a parasite-infested environment, they become less open to visitors, less curious, less exploratory and reduce their chance of infection. This theory is not only emphasized cultural differences but also cultural difference over space such as between different human populations. Generalizing the concept of pathogen-stress theory, this study explores the effect of Covid-19 epidemic and its impact on travel risk and management perceptions.

Effect of Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 is a new pandemic that first erupted in December 2019 in China and spreads rapidly across the world through human-to-human transmission. Most countries all over the world are instituting short-term travel restrictions to stop the spread of infection which increase the concern caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism industry worldwide [ 5 ]. Researchers must think about the previous disaster of the 2003 SARS outbreak [ 27 ] and the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka [ 28 ] for lessons on how to manage the crisis from the disaster [ 19 ]. Tourists prefer an inclusive tourism package, safety and security when travelling to popular destinations. They want to avoid risk and crowded tourism destinations, and they may decide not to visit destinations if their destination preferences diminished well-being after the outbreak. The covid-19 pandemic is already brought severe concerns to the world tourism industry and niche market. United Nation [ 21 ] reports that the recent circumstance of the tourism sector is very worse due to the pandemic. This crisis expanded in the world and Covid-19 pandemic easily immobilize international tourists’ emotional stability. The impact of Covid-19 epidemic is greatly affected tourists’ travel risk and management perception. Researchers [ 19 ] suggested the practitioners for exploring the tourists’ travel behavior towards tourism destinations. The discussion of existing literature evidence that there is no empirical examination that focuses on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on tourists’ travel risk and management perception. Thus, we propose the hypothesis:

• H1. The fear of Covid-19 pandemic affects the tourists’ travel risk and management perception.

Tourists’ travel risk and management perception

Travel risk and management perception refer to the evaluation of a situation concerning the risk to make travel decisions in destinations [ 1 ]. Travellers’ risk and management perception is a key component for tourism destinations. Risk management refers to the practice of recognizing potential risks of the travel and tourism industry due to the current pandemic in analyzing, improvement and taking preventive steps to reduce the risk. Many countries of the world started to recover from the crisis of tourism events [ 2 ]. Tourists’ travel arrangement should be organized to minimize the risk and stress of tourists. For example, tourists should purchase insurance when they booked trips to destinations. Researchers [ 29 ] stated that the travel and tourism industry is vulnerable against risk including crises events, epidemics, pandemics, and other risks that challenges tourists’ safety. The previous studies indicated that risk restricts travel is negatively affect tourism demand [ 30 – 32 ]. Other authors [ 33 ] found that perceived risk negatively affects tourists’ destination perceptions. This study postulated that:

• H2. Tourists’ travel risk and management perception have a significant impact on risk management.

Travel risk indicates the cancellation of flights due to the tourists’ travel restrictions, travel risk and management perceptions. The travel cancellation leads to tourists’ negative emotion, anxiety and disappointment [ 34 ]. In line with this, service delivery or service efficiency is crucial to tourism initiative performance. Service failure could lead to a negative impact on travel destinations. The previous studies indicated that tourists’ travel risk and management perception may negatively influence tourists’ decision making [ 35 , 36 ]. Professional service delivery and timely response could reduce tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions. Studies [ 36 ] identified that some restaurant refused to provide service delivery to Chinese people. This racial discrimination may lead to tourists’ having an increase in travel risk and management perceptions towards destinations. Research study [ 4 ] stated that public health crisis can affect tourists’ dining behavior. Thus, tourist should avoid eating in restaurants and order delivery to minimize social interaction and avoid unnecessary contact with people during the pandemic. Therefore, this study postulated that:

• H3. Tourists’ travel risk and management perception have a significant relationship with service delivery.

The travel behavior of people changes at the individual level due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the globe [ 37 ]. It is difficult to change the transportation pattern in the public areas and crowded public transits in the country. Articles [ 4 ] reported that bike or ride-sharing services could be alternative to more crowded transit options in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Social distance is important to avoid crowded areas, thus, the availability of different transportation options within the country can help tourists to decide to visit their desired tourism places. Another study [ 38 ] stated that the transportation network is vulnerable to disturbance due to movement restrictions. Research work [ 39 ] indicated that the use of public transport signifies a higher risk of infection of Covid-19 in Budapest. This study proposed the following hypothesis:

• H4. Tourists’ travel risk and management perception are positively related to travel pattern.

The distribution channel refers to the traditional travel agencies to online agents while purchasing tour packages, booking hotels and buying ticket [ 4 ]. Distribution channels are the intermediaries through which a product and services pass to the end customers. Authors [ 40 ] stated that customer behavior has a significant link with purchase behavior, destination choice, experience sharing, and information searches. Information technology can easily reduce an individual’s travel risk and management in person-to-person communication [ 41 ]. For instance, people can work at home without travelling to the office, involve with distance learning, order products and services online, and performing banking transaction virtually. People use technology for travel-related purposes such as booking holidays, offering instant vendor feedback, and comparing travel destinations, which lead to reducing travel risk and management perceptions. Therefore, we proposed that:

• H5. Tourists’ travel risk and management perception have a significant influence on distribution channels.

Covid-19 spreads through human-to-human transmission, thus, it is crucial to avoid overpopulated destinations. Overpopulated destination refers to the neologism that indicates the overcrowded people on a holiday destination. A collaborative work [ 42 ] indicated that pathogen threats make people alert and avoid overpopulated destination. This tendency will initiate a mind shift in people travel behavior and reduce the tourists’ travel risk and management perception in the avoidance of overpopulated destination [ 43 ]. It’s reported that social distancing can assist to prevent infection of Covid-19 epidemics [ 44 ]. According to several studies [ 4 , 45 , 46 ] tourism locations are plagued by overcrowded travelers, thus, tourism operators can identify how the best way to manage tourist flows to make sure safety, well-being and risk perception of visitors. This study proposes that:

• H6. Tourists’ travel risk and management perception have a significant impact on the avoidance of overpopulated destinations during Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made people conscious of hygiene and safety. People are concerned about their safety and hygienic need in public transports, hotels and recreational sites [ 47 ]. To reduce the symptom of people of Covid-19 epidemics, face masks use can be helpful for the hygiene and safety of people [ 4 , 48 ]. Covid-19 pandemic have greatly affected the travel decision of tourists and their health safety and hygiene [ 4 ]. It implies that safety and hygiene can be a significant factor for the travel risk and management perception of tourists. Because the risk mostly belongs to safety and hygienic including health-related issues. The potential tourists are generally like to seek destinations’ safety and hygiene, cleanliness, established infrastructure, and high-quality medical facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic [ 4 ]. Thus, this study postulated that:

• H7. Tourists’ travel risk and management perception have a significant impact on destinations’ hygiene and safety.

Based on the existing theoretical and empirical assessment, this study proposes a conceptual model ( Fig 1 ).

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.g001

Methodology

Survey instrument..

This study uses an explicit statement for measuring respondents’ responses to the given factors of Covid-19 epidemic, tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and their social traits. Studies [ 49 ] supported that this method is suitable for the respondents for an understanding of the survey measurement items. This study uses multi-measurement items for all constructs due to overcoming the limitations of using a single item. Specifically, five measurement items were modified from [ 8 ] and [ 19 ] for evaluating the effect of Covid-19 pandemic. A total of four questions measuring travel risk and management perception were adapted from previous studies [ 19 , 50 ]. The five measurement items used to evaluate risk management considering tourists’ travel risk management perception to visit the destinations were modified from [ 5 ] and [ 19 ], while the three questions related to service delivery were adapted from [ 19 ]. Three measurement items referring to [ 19 ] were designed to evaluate transportation patterns, and three questions based on [ 41 , 51 ] and [ 19 ] measured to assess distribution channels. Four items were modified from [ 44 ] and [ 4 ] to measure the avoidance of overpopulated destinations, while four items developed from [ 4 , 48 ] to evaluate hygiene and safety. All measurement items under the constructs were assessed using a seven-point Likert scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7).

Survey administration and sample

The data were collected from a self-administered questionnaire to examine the conceptual model of this study. The questionnaire of this study was pretested to certify the validity of the survey instrument. To ensure content validity, the researchers of this study conducted a pilot test among 50 international tourists. The reliability test was employed to identify Cronbach’s alpha value (above 0.70) of all constructs and confirm the reliability of the survey questions [ 52 ]. In this study, an English version questionnaire was used for data collection as most of the participants were educated, and they were able to answer the survey questions. The questionnaire was delivered through an online survey using the Google platform tools and highlighted the main purpose of this study. We described the procedure of the survey to the respondents before participating in this study. The researchers of this study politely requested respondents through the online platform, explained the purpose of the study and asked for their consent to be part of participants in this study.

We ensured to the respondents that the data would be collected for academic only and no other authorities would have access to this information. Also, we confirmed to the respondents that they would remain anonymous because participants were not required to provide their name, address and mobile numbers. The survey questionnaire of the Google platform link was shared on social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, BiP) for collecting data. Also, the researchers of this study collected an email address from the respondents through Linkedin and sent them a Google platform link to the survey questionnaire. The online questionnaires could be completed with the use of respondents’ smartphone, laptop/computer. The complete survey questionnaire consisted of 63 items and they took approximately 20 minutes to complete. We adopted the cross-sectional design and collected data from 731 international tourists via an online survey from the 2nd week of April to the 1st week of July 2020. Before collecting the data, an ethical research approval letter was obtained from the Jiujiang University Research Ethics Committee (JUREC). An introductory letter and consent form was also obtained from the ethics committee, which clearly expressed the reason for this study to acquire consent from the respondents for conducting the study. Online survey approach was used for collecting data from the respondents. We sent a consent form to the respondents whether they are willing to participate in this study. The respondents of this study are individual tourists who visited different tourism destinations around the globe. In line with this, we used a representative sampling method for collecting data from the different geographic areas such as Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and America. A representative sample can cover a part of the population and allows to approximate the entire population. Studies [ 53 ] indicated that a representative sample can accurately reflect the characteristics of the large group.

A total of 1000 questionnaires with consent form were sent using a Google platform and 731 were returned, confirming a return rate of 73.1%. A total of 1000 questionnaires with consent form were sent using a Google platform and 731 were returned, confirming a return rate of 73.1%. Fifteen returned questionnaires were found to have only partially completed and thus they were not usable. The usable response rate was approximately 71.6%. The respondents’ answers to the open-ended question were hand-coded and checked by the researchers of this study. In this study, the minimum sample size was according to prior power calculation. We considered recruiting at 716 respondents because this would provide satisfactory power 0.80 to detect expected correction coefficient 0.20 ( https://www.sample-size.net/correlation-sample-size/ ). We considered a large sample size in this study since this could increase the statistical power for detecting poor effects and strengthen the robustness of the results.

Data analysis method

In this study, we have used SmartPLS3.0 software for testing the hypothesis relationship among the indicators. The partial least square (PLS) method is a more appropriate statistical technique since it can prevent specification errors and improve the reliability of the results, as well as provide better outcomes and minimize structural errors [ 54 ]. This method is suitable for examining the hypothesis relationships of the study [ 55 ]. The PLS method consists of 2 steps, for example, measurement model and structural model [ 56 ], which has been analyzed in this study.

Multivariate normality and common method variance

Structural equation modeling using the partial least square method is not related to multivariate normality in data, because it is a non-parametric assessment instrument [ 57 ]. It is [ 58 ] suggested that multivariate data normality can be tested using the online tool of web power ( https://webpower.psychstat.org/wiki/tools/index ) to estimate data normality. We run the web power and the result revealed that the data set is not normal because [ 59 ] multivariate coefficient p-values were less than 0.05 [ 60 , 61 ]. In social science study, common method variance is normal due to the data collection procedures. We run [ 62 ] one-factor test [ 63 ] to evaluate the effect of common method variance on the constructs of the study. The result of one-factor Harman’s test revealed that common method variance is not a critical matter in this study because the main factor explained 33.45% variance, indicating less than the suggested limit of 50% [ 64 ].

Data analysis

Demographic characteristics.

The majority of the respondents consisted of male (66.7) whereas female was 33.3%. In terms of the marital status of the respondents, 59.9% was married followed by a single (36.8%) and divorced (3.2%). The majority of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree (57.1%) followed by a master’s degree (24.4%), a secondary school/diploma degree 14.0, and a PhD (4.5%). The results indicated that around 87.5% of respondents were not infected by the affected Covid-19 pandemic whereas 1.2% were infected by Covid-19 and 11.3% of respondent do not know whether they were infected by Covid-19 or not. In terms of travel purpose, the majority of the respondents (39.1%) travel for leisure/holiday or shopping purposes, which followed by education/conference (28.2%), healthcare (17.0%), others (11.3%) and business (4.4%). The following are the percentage of age group: between 18–29 years old (42.0%), between 30–39 years old (33.6%), between 50–59 years old (6.7%), and above 60 years old (1.7%). The majority of the respondents were a private employee (59.9%) followed by a government employee (30.8%), and unemployed (9.2%). The following are the percentage for monthly income of the respondents: less than USD2000 (74.4%), between USD2001- USD5000 (18%), between USD5001- USD7000 (4.3%), between USD7001- USD10000 (1.6%), and above USD10000 monthly income. The majority of the respondents in this study were from Middle East (37.2%), followed by Asia (29.3%), Africa (14.1%), Australia (9.3%), Europe (7.0%), and America (3.1%).

Measurement model analysis

In this study, we examined two types of validity such as convergent validity and discriminant validity to evaluate the measurement model. The convergent validity is assessed with two major coefficients such as composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE). To measure the convergent validity, the factor loading of each construct should be considered and compared to a threshold. Studies [ 55 ] reported that the loading should be greater than 0.70 to measure convergent validity. Researcher [ 56 ] postulated that the items of each factor loading lower than 0.40 is required to consider for elimination. The findings revealed that the majority of the indicator loadings on their corresponding latent variables are greater than 0.80 ( Table 1 ), indicating a higher convergent validity of the model. The CR coefficient was used to measure the construct reliability. The result showed that the value exceeded 0.80 for all latent variables, which indicates the acceptable construct reliability. The results of AVE of all latent variables exceeds the threshold of 0.50 [ 56 ], which signifies that the convergent validity of the measurement model is acceptable. The Cronbach’s alpha value exceeded the cut-off point 0.70 [ 54 ], which recognizing that internal reliability attains the acceptable level. The rho-A value exceeded that threshold 0.70 and the variance inflation factor (VIF) sowed lower than 3.3, which indicating that there is no multicollinearity issue in the model.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.t001

Discriminant validity is the extent to which each latent variable is distinct from all other variables in the model [ 56 ]. Researchers [ 55 ] argued that the square root of the AVE for each variable should be higher than all of the relationships among the variable and other variables in the model. Table 2 showed the square roots of the AVE for the variables along the diagonal and the correlations among the indicators. The findings revealed that the square root of AVE is higher than all other values in the same row and column, which indicates that the model meets acceptable discriminant validity. We also considered the Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) to estimate the discriminant validity of the model [ 65 ]. The results indicated that HTMT is lower than 0.90, which indicating that the discriminant validity meets the acceptable level [ 66 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.t002

Structural model analysis

The model’s predictive accuracy was estimated based on the explained variance portion (R 2 ), whereas the R 2 value of travel risk and management perceptions, risk management, service delivery, transportation patterns, distribution channels, avoidance of overpopulated destinations, and hygiene and safety were 0.628, 0.553, 0.521, 0.352, 0.668, 0.523, and 0.454 respectively. Based on [ 67 ], a non-parametric bootstrapping method was used to test the hypothesis relationships. The findings revealed that the effect of Covid-19 pandemic has significant impact on travel risk and management perceptions (β = 0.727, p < 0.01), and tourists’ travel risk and management perception has significant impact on risk management (β = 0.743, p < 0.01), service delivery (β = 0.470, p < 0.01), transportation patterns (β = 0.481, p < 0.01), distribution channels (β = 0.261, p < 0.01), avoidance overpopulated destinations (β = 0.472, p < 0.01), and hygiene and safety (β = 0.312, p < 0.01), thus, hypothesis H1-H7 are accepted ( Table 3 ). The effect size was estimated using f 2 values. Cohen (2013) [ 68 ] reported that f 2 ≥ 0.02, f 2 ≥ 0.15, and f 2 ≥ 0.35 present small, medium, and large effect sizes respectively. The findings revealed that hygiene and safety ( f 2 = 0.365), transportation patterns ( f 2 = 0.356), and avoidance overpopulated destinations ( f 2 = 0.352) have a high effect size, whereas service delivery ( f 2 = 0.283), risk management ( f 2 = 0.236), and ravel risk perception ( f 2 = 0.356) have a medium effect size but distribution channels ( f 2 = 0.073) have a small effect size. The Q 2 values for travel risk and management (0.349), risk management (0.350), service delivery (0.160), transportation pattern (0.166), distribution channel (0.036), avoidance of overpopulated destination (0.141), and hygiene and safety (0.132) were all larger than zero [ 69 ], indicating a predictive relevance of the construct.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.t003

With respect mediating effects, the findings revealed that travel risk and management perception mediates the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on risk management (β = 0.540, t = 9.518, p < 0.01), service delivery (β = 0.341, t = 4.993, p < 0.01), transportation patterns (β = 0.350, t = 5.325, p < 0.01), distribution channels (β = 0.189, t = 2.688, p < 0.01), avoidance overpopulated destinations (β = 0.343, t = 5.612, p < 0.01), and hygiene and safety (β = 0.267, t = 3.869, p < 0.01), therefore H8a-H8f are accepted ( Table 4 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.t004

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Covid-19 pandemic, a newly developed scale designed to measure the aspect of international tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and its social outcomes. The results of the structural model assessment revealed the hypothesis relationships, which indicated that the Covid-19 pandemic has a relationship with travel risk and management perceptions. It implies that due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe, the majority of the countries were set up short-term travel limits to control the mass panic. By conducting a review of the previous study indicated that there is a relationship between perceived risk for disease-related factors and Covid-19 pandemic [ 13 ].

The existing study results identified that the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected risk management, service delivery, travel pattern, distribution channel, avoidance of overpopulated destinations, and hygiene and safety through the tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions. The tourists believe that Covid-19 pandemic has created travel risk and management perception and reduce their travel plant to destinations. Data analysis of this study specifies that tourists’ travel risk and management perception is greatly associated with risk management. In service research the Covid-19 pandemic context, risk management has been marked as a significant factor affecting an individual’s belief about controlling threats of a pandemic. The previous study [ 4 ] supported that tourists’ behavior can lead to risk management for destination infrastructure and medical facilities, destination image, and trip planning.

The result highlight that travels risk perception is associated with service delivery. This finding is related to [ 70 ] which found that there is a significant relationship between Covid-19 pandemic and service delivery. Tourists can avoid eating and drinking in restaurants. There is an alternative solution for people who can order delivery or takeout food to minimize interpersonal interaction. This study expands the existing knowledge by examining the effect of travel risk and management perception on travel pattern. This result is related to [ 4 ] who reported that travel pattern can lead to independent travel or small group tours, less group dining, promote destinations experiencing under tourism, and diversity such as novel outdoor activities, smart tourism, and nature-based travel. The findings indicated there is a positive association between travel risk and management perception and distribution channels. It infers that distribution Chanel can encourage people for nature-based travel and smart tourism to reduce the travel risk and risk management perception during the Covid-19 pandemic. some researchers have reported that people can use technology for travel-related purposes to reduce travel risk and risk management perception [ 9 ].

The empirical results indicated that tourists’ travel risk and management perception is greatly associated with the avoidance of overpopulated destinations. The effect of Covid-19 pandemic spreads through human-to-human transmission, thus, avoidance of overcrowded destinations can be an alternative solution to reduce infection [ 44 ]. The overpopulated destinations can be minimized by using a short-term strategy of imposing travel restrictions for certain attractions destinations. Data analysis point out that the travel risk and management perception have a positive impact on hygiene and safety, which corresponds well with a previous study [ 4 ] which indicated that travel risk and management perception has greatly affected tourists’ travel decision and their perceptions of hygiene and safety due to the spread of Covid-19 epidemic. In the context of service research, hygiene and safety judgments have been marked as an important construct affecting people’s safety and security towards the service firm or customers’ purchase intention of goods and services offered by the firms or service organizations. Tourists can purchase travel insurance when booking trips to confirm coverage in case of illness including Covid-19. Usually, the potential tourists are likely to express their interest in destinations’ hygiene, safety, security, cleanliness, avoidance population density, and medical facilities when they decide for travelling to destinations.

Implications

The findings of this study indicated that Covid-19 has affected tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and its impact on risk management, service delivery, transportation patterns, distribution channels, avoidance of overpopulated destinations, hygiene and safety. Tourists believe that Covid-19 pandemic has created tourists’ health anxiety and reduce their travel plans for destinations. These findings may help policy-makers and healthcare operators to manage maladaptive levels of concern due to Covid-19 pandemic, and to know who is more inclined to react unpleasantly towards the Covid-19 pandemic. Health practitioners can improve educational interventions while targeting international tourists for travel destinations. Tourists are worried about the spread of Covid-19 pandemic on their travel activities and travel-related preferences in the post-pandemic period. With the significant effect of Covid-19 pandemic, this study contributes key insights to assist tourism policymakers and practitioners improve effective strategies to enhance tourists’ confidence after facing health risk crisis and travel risk and management perception towards travel destinations. The travel movement has become more selective, therefore independent travel and health tourism are crucial. Tourists can take fewer trips but spend longer in their picked destinations. These patterns will reduce the negative effects of the travel industry and lessen tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions. Based on the tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and travel recuperation systems, travel attributes can move in the present due to the spread of Covid-19 epidemic.

The disaster of Covid-19 pandemic teaches us not to visit overpopulated destinations and those people suffering from overcrowded destinations, there is a necessity to evaluate their travel planning and improvement to ensure sustainability. As tourists prefer quiet destinations for their tourism activities due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the global travel and tourism industry could benefit by paying attention to these craving. Due to these predicted changes in tourist behavior, the world tourism industry entails close academic attention. The travel and tourism industry is a fundamental part of the global economy, liable for a large number of occupations and billions of dollars in profit. Therefore, travel and tourism industry practitioners and policymakers should reevaluate tourists’ behavior, travel industry policies, regulations, tourism operators’ market, and tourism product development to promote continuous sustainability. The existing global health crisis has an unprecedented impact on the travel and tourism industry due to the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

Tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and their impacts on the tourism market or society (e.g. risk management perception, service delivery, transportation patterns, distribution Channels, avoidance of overpopulated destinations, hygiene and safety), need a top to bottom investigation to empower the tourism industry experts, and policymakers to build up a more adjusted industry. Tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions in the tourism industry will likewise prompt the development of new tourism markets that academics and tourism operators can investigate together. The findings of the existing empirical study are likely to shape theories on tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions, tourists’ behavior, marketing and management, both in the travel and tourism industry explicitly and in more extensive fields in general. The spread of Covid-19 flare-up has carried critical effects on society and industry. The travel and tourism policymakers and academicians should consider this pandemic tragedy and how it will advise tourism industry practices. The potential tourists concern about how they travel to destinations; thus, tourism practitioners should consider the strategies that mitigate the spread of a pandemic, public health crises, and ponder a plan that carries positive changes to the travel industry following this pandemic. For example, tourists should be needed to buy travel insurance when booking trips to guarantee coverage if there should be an occurrence of sickness, including a post-covid pandemic. Both international and domestic tourism needs to stress safety and health measures, and any tourism activities that make tourists feel safer to travel destinations and reduce their travel risk and management perception. The impact of Covid-19 pandemic should be considered within a global community. The spread of Covid-19 epidemic will have greater psychological, sociological and financial impacts if it is not eliminated quickly across the world. While society can recuperate effectively from financial interruption, including in global travel and tourism activities, following Covid-19 pandemic, the sociological and mental effects will be more stable. People should explore the current post-covid pandemic scene cautiously and sympathetically.

Limitation and future study

This study has several limitations despite its strengths such as large sample size and a relatively heterogeneous sample of the international tourists who visited the destination for leisure/holiday or shopping purposes, education/conference, healthcare, business and other purposes. This study surveyed with self-administrative questionnaire report measures that entail potential bias assumes that participants might be influenced by social desirability. Therefore, future study should aim to use other measures such as opinions of focus groups, which could support more in-depth analysis. This study employed a quantitative method that is inflexible to participants’ subjective views on the effect of Covid-19 pandemic, thus, future study is suggested to ask qualitative assessments using in-depth interviews. The data was collected through the online platform, which much easier for the young generations compare to the older generations, and leads to a large number of a younger group of participants. A limited number of items were used to evaluate the constructs of the conceptual model and thus future studies should cover the large measurement items. The objective of this study mainly focuses on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on tourist travel risk and management perception to assist the tourism industry to provide coping strategies in the face of the tourism crisis. Thus, future study should be conducted to investigate the factors that influencing tourists travel risk attitudes and risk management perceptions during and after the Covid-19 epidemic. This might be helpful for tourism managers and practitioners to pay attention to the control of Covid-19 crisis, and a systematic management strategy to promote the development of the tourism industry.

Supporting information

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.s001

S1 Dataset.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.s002

S2 Dataset.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256486.s003

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Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services

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• Faculty Research

Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services (TN)

• Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services (TN)  By: David A. Garvin
• Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services  By: David A. Garvin and Nancy Hua Dai

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Chapter 7. Travel Services

Heather Knowles and Morgan Westcott

Learning Objectives

• Describe the key characteristics of the travel services sector
• Define key travel services terminology
• Differentiate between types of reservation systems and booking channels
• Discuss the impacts of online travel agents on consumers and the sector
• Identify key travel services and organizations in Canada and British Columbia
• Explain the importance of additional tourism services not covered under NAICS
• Describe key trends and issues in travel services worldwide

The travel services sector is made up of a complex web of relationships between a variety of suppliers, tourism products, destination marketing organizations, tour operators, and travel agents, among many others. Under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), travel services comprises businesses and functions that assist with planning and reserving components of the visitor experience (Government of Canada, 2014).

Before we move on, let’s explore the term travel services a little more. As detailed in Chapter 1, Canada, the United States, and Mexico all use NAICS guidelines, which define the tourism industry as consisting of transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, recreation and entertainment, and travel services.

For many years, however, the tourism industry was classified into eight sectors: accommodations, adventure and recreation, attractions, events and conferences, food and beverage, tourism services, transportation, and travel trade (Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture, 2013). As you can see, most of these — from accommodations to food and beverage — remain virtually the same under NAICS and have been covered thus far in this textbook.

Tourism services support industry development and the delivery of guest experiences, and some of these are missing from the NAICS classification. To ensure you have a complete picture of the tourism industry in BC, this chapter will cover both the NAICS travel services activities and some additional tourism services.

First, we’ll review the components of travel services as identified under NAICS, exploring the function of each area and ways they interact:

• Travel agencies
• Online travel agencies (OTAs)
• Tour operators
• Destination marketing organizations (DMOs)
• Other organizations

Following these definitions and descriptions, we’ll take a look at some other support functions that fall under tourism services. These include sector organizations, tourism and hospitality human resources organizations, training providers, educational institutions, government branches and ministries, economic development and city planning offices, and consultants.

Finally, we’ll look at issues and trends in travel services, both at home, and abroad.

Components of Travel Services

While the application of travel services functions are structured somewhat differently around the world, there are a few core types of travel services in every destination. Essentially, travel services are those processes used by guests to book components of their trip. Let’s explore these services in more detail.

Travel Agencies

A travel agency is a business that operates as the intermediary between the travel industry (supplier) and the traveller (purchaser). Part of the role of the travel agency is to market prepackaged travel tours and holidays to potential travellers. The agency can further function as a broker between the traveller and hotels, car rentals, and tour companies (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2003). Travel agencies can be small and privately owned or part of a larger entity.

A travel agent is the direct point of contact for a traveller who is researching and intending to purchase packages and experiences through an agency. Travel agents can specialize in certain types of travel including specific destinations; outdoor adventures; and backpacking, rail, cruise, cycling, or culinary tours, to name a few. These specializations can help travellers when they require advice about their trips. Some travel agents operate at a fixed address and others offer services both online and at a bricks-and-mortar location. Travellers are then able to have face-to-face conversations with their agents and also reach them by phone or by email. Travel agents usually have a specialized diploma or certificate in travel agent/travel services (go2HR, 2014).

Today, travellers have the option of researching and booking everything they need online without the help of a travel agent. As technology and the internet are increasingly being used to market destinations, people can now choose to book tours with a particular agency or agent, or they can be fully independent travellers (FITs) , creating their own itineraries.

Online Travel Agents (OTAs)

Increasing numbers of FITs are turning to online travel agents (OTAs) , companies that aggregate accommodations and transportation options and allow users to choose one or many components of their trip based on price or other incentives. Examples of OTAs include Booking.com, Expedia.ca, Hotwire.com, and Kayak.com. OTAs are gaining popularity with the travelling public; in 2012, they reported online sales of almost $100 billion (Carey, Kang, & Zea, 2012) and almost triple that figure, upward of $278 billion, in 2013 ( The Economist , 2014).

In early 2015 Expedia purchased Travelocity for $280 million, merging two of the world’s largest travel websites. Expedia became the owner of Hotels.com, Hotwire, Egencia, and Travelocity brands, facing its major competition from Priceline (Alba, 2015).

Although OTAs can provide lower-cost travel options to travellers and the freedom to plan and reserve when they choose, they have posed challenges for the tourism industry and travel services infrastructure. As evidenced by the merger of Expedia and Travelocity, the majority of popular OTA sites are owned by just a few companies, causing some concern over lack of competition between brands. Additionally, many OTAs charge accommodation providers and operators a commission to be listed in their inventory system. Commission-based services, as applied by Kayak, Expedia, Hotwire, Hotels.com, and others, can have an impact on smaller operators who cannot afford to pay commissions for multiple online inventories (Carey, Kang & Zea, 2012). Being excluded from listings can decrease the marketing reach of the product to potential travellers, which is a challenge when many service providers in the tourism industry are small or medium-sized businesses with budgets to match.

Finally, governments are stepping in as they see OTAs as a barrier to collecting full tax revenues on accommodations and transportations sold in their jurisdictions. OTAs frequently charge taxes on the retail price of the component; however, they purchase these products at a discount, remitting only the portion collected on the lesser amount to the government. In other words, the OTA pockets the difference between taxes collected and taxes remitted (Associated Press, 2014).

Some believe this practice shortchanges the destination that is ultimately responsible for delivering the tourism experience. These communities rely on tax revenue to pay for infrastructure related to the visitor experience. Recent lawsuits, including one by the state of Montana against a group of OTAs, have highlighted this challenge. To date, the courts have sided with OTAs, sending the message that these companies are not responsible for collecting tax on behalf of government (Associated Press, 2014).

While the industry and communities struggle to keep up with the changing dynamics of travel sales, travellers are adapting to this new world order. One of these adaptations is the ever-increasing use of mobile devices for travel booking. The Expedia Future of Travel Report found that 49% of travellers from the millennial generation (which includes those born between 1980 and 1999) use mobile devices to book travel (Expedia Inc., 2014), and these numbers are expected to continue to increase. Travel agencies are reacting by developing personalized features for digital travellers and mobile user platforms (ETC Digital, 2014). With the number of smartphones users expected to reach 1.75 billion in 2014 (CWT Travel Management Institute, 2014) these agencies must adapt as demand dictates.

A key feature of travel agencies’ mobile services (and to a growing extent transportation carriers) includes the ability to have up-to-date itinerary changes and information sent directly to their phone (Amadeus, 2014). By using mobile platforms that can develop customized, up-to-date travel itineraries for clients, agencies and operators are able to provide a personal touch, ideally increasing customer satisfaction rates.

Take a Closer Look: Expedia – The Future of Travel Report

Expedia is the largest online travel agency in the world. Formed in 1996, Expedia Inc. now oversees a variety of online travel booking companies. Together they provide travellers with the option to book flights, hotels, tours, and transportation through mobile or desktop online functions. For more on Expedia’s thoughts on the future of travel, read its report at Expedia’s report on the Future of Travel : http://expediablog.co.uk/The-Future-of-Travel/

Despite the growth and demand for OTAs, travel agencies are still in demand by leisure travellers (Hotel Marketing, 2013). The same is true for business travellers, especially in markets such as China and Latin America. Business clients in these emerging markets place a premium on “high-touch” services, such as paper tickets delivered by hand, and in-person reservations services (BTN Group, 2014).

Tour Operators

A tour operator packages all or most of the components of an offered trip and then sells them to the traveller. These packages can also be sold through retail outlets or travel agencies (CATO, 2014; Goeldner & Ritchie, 2003). Tour operators work closely with hotels, transportation providers, and attractions in order to purchase large volumes of each component and package these at a better rate than the traveller could if purchasing individually. Tour operators generally sell to the leisure market.

Inbound, Outbound, and Receptive Tour Operators

Tour operators may be inbound, outbound, or receptive:

• Inbound tour operators  bring travellers into a country as a group or through individual tour packages (e.g., a package from China to visit Canada).
• Outbound tour operators work within a country to take travellers to other countries (e.g., a package from Canada to the United Kingdom).
• Receptive tour operators (RTOs) are not travel agents, and they do not operate the tours. They represent the various products of tourism suppliers to tour operators in other markets in a business-to-business (B2B) relationship. Receptive tour operators are key to selling packages to overseas markets (Destination BC, 2014) and creating awareness around possible product.

Destination Marketing Organizations

Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) include national tourism boards, state/provincial tourism offices, and community convention and visitor bureaus around the world. DMOs promote “the long-term development and marketing of a destination, focusing on convention sales, tourism marketing and service” (DMAI, 2014).

Spotlight On: Destination Marketing Association International

Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) is the global trade association for official DMOs. It is made up of over 600 official DMOs in 15 countries around the world. DMAI provides its members with information, resources, research, networking opportunities, professional development, and certification programs. For more information, visit the Destination Marketing Association International website : www.destinationmarketing.org

With the proliferation of other planning and booking channels, including OTAs, today’s DMOs are shifting away from travel services functions and placing a higher priority on destination management components.

Working Together

One way tour operators, DMOs, and travel agents work together is by participating in familiarization tours (FAMs for short). These are usually hosted by the local DMO and include visits to different tour operators within a region. FAM attendees can be media, travel agents, RTO representatives, and tour operator representatives. FAMs are frequently low to no cost for the guests as the purpose is to orient them to the tour product or experience so they can promote or sell it to potential guests.

Other Organizations

The majority of examples in this chapter so far have pertained to leisure travellers. There are, however, specialty organizations that deal specifically with business trips.

Spotlight On: Global Business Travel Association  Canada

Internationally, the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) represents over 7,000 business travel agents and corporate travel and meeting managers who collectively manage over $340 billion in business travel and meetings each year (GBTA, 2014). The Canadian chapter, headquartered in Ontario, holds annual events and shares resources on its website. For more information, visit the Global Business Travel Association : www.gbta.org/Canada/

Business Travel Planning and Reservations

Unlike leisure trips, which are generally planned and booked by end consumers using their choice of tools, business travel often involves a travel management company, or its online tools. Travel managers negotiate with suppliers and ensure that all the trip components are cost effective and comply with the policies of the organization.

Many business travel planners rely on global distribution systems (GDS) to price and plan components. GDS combine information from a group of suppliers, such as airlines. In the past, this has created a chain of information from the supplier to GDS to the travel management company. Today, however, there is a push from airlines (through the International Air Transport Association’s Resolution 787) to dissolve the GDS model and forge direct relationships with buyers (BTN Group, 2014).

Destination Management Companies

According to the Association of Destination Management Executives (ADME), a destination management company (DMC)  specializes in designing and implementing corporate programs, including “events, activities, tours, transportation and program logistics” (ADME, 2014). The packages produced by DMCs are extraordinary experiences rather than general business trips. These are typically used as employee incentives, corporate retreats, product launches, and loyalty programs. DMCs are the one point of contact for the client corporation, arranging for airfare, airport transfers, ground transportation, meals, special activities, and special touches such as branded signage, gifts, and decor (ADME, 2014). The end user is simply given (or awarded) the package and then liaises with the DMC to ensure particular arrangements meet his or her needs and schedule.

As you can see, travel services range from online to personal, and from leisure to business applications. Now that you have a general sense of the components of travel services, let’s look at some examples in Canada and BC.

Travel Services in Canada and BC

In British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada, many agencies are members of the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) . ACTA is an industry-led, membership-based organization that aims to ensure customers have professional and meaningful counselling. Membership is optional, but it does offer the benefit of ensuring customers receive the required services and that the travel agencies have a membership board for reference and industry resources (ACTA, 2014).

Spotlight On: Travel CUTS Travel Agency

Travel CUTS is 100% Canadian owned and operated. As a student, you may have seen its locations on or around campus. With a primary audience of postsecondary students, professors, and alumni, Travel CUTS specializes in backpack-style travel to a variety of destinations. It is a full-service travel agency that can help find flights for travel, book tours with a variety of companies including GAdventures or Intrepid Travel, assist in booking hostels or hotels, and even help with the SWAP overseas VISA program. For more information, visit Travel CUTS : www.travelcuts.com

Although travel agencies may be located in a specific community, the agencies and their representatives may operate internationally, within Canada, within BC, or across regions. In Vancouver alone there are over 500 travel agencies available to the searching traveller (Travel Agents in BC, 2014). Examples of some of the more recognized larger travel agencies and agents operating in BC include the British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA), Marlin Travel, and Flight Centre.

Many different types of tour operators work across BC and Canada. Tour operators can specialize in any sector or a combination of sectors. A company may focus on ski experiences, as is the case with Destination Snow, or perhaps wine tours in the Okanagan, which is the specialty of Distinctly Kelowna Tours. These operators specialize in one area but there are others that work with many different service providers.

Spotlight On: Canadian Association of Tour Operators

The Canadian Association of Tour Operators (CATO) is a membership-based organization that serves as the voice of the tour operator segment and engages in professional development and networking in the sector. For more information, visit the Canadian Association of Tour Operators : www.cato.ca

Tour operators can vary in size, niche market, and operation capacity (time of year). An example of a niche BC tour operator is Prince of Whales Whale Watching in Victoria. Prince of Whales offers specialty whale-watching tours year-round in a variety of boat sizes, working with the local DMO and other local booking agents to sell tours as part of packages or as a stand-alone service to travellers. It also works to sell its product directly to the potential traveller through its website, reservation number, and in-person sales agents (Prince of Whales, 2014).

Examples of large RTOs representing Canada internationally include Jonview or CanTours. Operators of all kinds frequently work closely with a number of destination marketing organizations, as evidenced during Canada’s West Marketplace, which is a trade marketplace hosted by Destination BC and Travel Alberta. Each year the location of the marketplace alternates between Alberta and BC (past locations have included Kelowna and Canmore). This event provides an opportunity for Alberta and BC sellers (tour operators, local accommodation, activities, and DMOs) to sell their products to international RTOs who in turn work with international tour operators and travel agents to repackage the travel products. In a span of 10-minute sessions, sellers market and promote their products in hopes of having an RTO pick up the package for future years.

On a national scale, Rendez-vous Canada is a tourism marketplace presented by the Canadian Tourism Commission that brings together more than 1,500 tourism professionals from around the world for a series of 12- minute sessions where they can learn more about Canadian tours and related services (Canadian Tourism Commission, 2015).

Let’s now look a little closer at the role of BC destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in providing travel services.

At the national level, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is responsible for strategic marketing of the country. It works with industry and government while providing resources for small and medium-sized businesses in the form of toolkits. In BC, there a variety of travel service providers available to help with the planning process including Destination BC/HelloBC, regional destination marketing organizations (RDMOs), and local DMOs.

Destination BC/HelloBC

HelloBC is the official travel service platform of Destination BC, British Columbia’s provincial DMO. HelloBC.com offers access to festival activities, accommodation, transportation options, and trip ideas. This website is complemented by a social media presence through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (HelloBC, 2014a). Although the online resources are highly detailed, visitors also have the option of ordering a paper copy of the BC Travel Guide .

To assist with trip planning, HelloBC features a booking agent system, offering discounts and special deals created in partnership with operators. Although the site can process these value-added components, it does not handle accommodation bookings, instead directing the interested party to the reservation system of a chosen provider.

In addition to operating HelloBC, Destination BC also oversees a network of 136 Visitor Centres that can be identified by the blue and yellow logo. These are a source of itinerary information for the FIT and a purchase point for travellers wishing to book trip components (HelloBC, 2014b).

Regional Destination Marketing Organizations

BC is divided into five regional destination marketing organizations, or RDMOs : Vancouver Island, Thompson Okanagan, Northern British Columbia, Cariboo Chilcotin Coast and the Kootenay Rockies (HelloBC, 2014c). Along with Destination BC, these RDMOs work to market their particular region.

Housed within the HelloBC online platform, each RDMO has an online presence and travel guide specific to the region as well as a regional social media presence. These guides are important as they allow regional operators to participate in the guide and consumer website in order to encourage visitation to the area and build their tourism operations.

Take a Closer Look: BC’s Regional DMOs

For more information on each RMDO, visit the following consumer and industry sites:

Vancouver Island Consumer: Vancouver Island : www.hellobc.com/vancouver-island.aspx Industry: Vancouver Island : www.tourismvi.ca

Thompson Okanagan Consumer: Okanagan : www.hellobc.com/thompson-okanagan.aspx Industry: Okanagan : www.totabc.org/corporateSite/

Northern British Columbia Consumer: Northern BC : www.hellobc.com/northern-british-columbia.aspx Industry: Northern BC : www.travelnbc.com/

Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Consumer: Cariboo Chilcotin Coast : www.hellobc.com/cariboo-chilcotin-coast.aspx Industry: Cariboo Chilcotin Coast : www.landwithoutlimits.com/

Kootenay Rockies Consumer: Kootenay Rockies : www.hellobc.com/kootenay-rockies.aspx Industry: Kootenay Rockies : www.krtourism.ca/

Community Destination Marketing Organizations

Community destination marketing organizations (CDMOs) are responsible for marketing a specific destination or area, such as Whistler or Kimberley. Travel services typically offered include hotel search engines, specific destination packages and offers, discounts, events and festival listings, and other information of interest to potential visitors. In the absence of a CDMO, sometimes these services are provided by the local chamber of commerce or economic development office.

Spotlight On: Tourism Tofino 

Tourism Tofino is the local DMO for the Tofino area, located on the west side of Vancouver Island. Tofino is a destination region that attracts travellers to Pacific Rim National Park, surfing opportunities, storm watching, and the Pacific Ocean. As part of its marketing tactics, Tourism Tofino offers visitors key planning tools on the landing site. To encourage shoulder season visitation, storm-watching deals are highlighted, which also allows visitors to inquire directly with the accommodation provider and/or tour operator. For more information, visit Tourism Tofino : www.tourismtofino.com

Complementing BC’s Visitor Centre network mentioned earlier, local visitor centres are managed by individual communities. Visitor centres may be housed in gateway buildings at strategic locations, in historic or cultural buildings, or at an office located in town. They are designed to provide general information to travellers and may include other services such as booking hotels, free Wi-Fi, and help from a visitor information counsellor (SGSEP, 2012).

Other Systems and Organizations

A number of customized and targeted reservation systems are used by BC DMOs and other organizations. One example is the BC campground reservation online booking systems. BC Parks, Parks Canada, and private campground operators all use different proprietary reservation systems. Both BC Parks and Parks Canada reservation systems open on a specific date in the spring for bookings later in the year. These systems let visitors review what a site looks like through photos or video and pick which site they would like to book in the campground. Many campgrounds also offer a first-come-first-served system, as well as overflow sites, to accommodate visitors who may not have reserved a site.

In the business market, there are several companies in BC and Canada that facilitate planning and booking. Concur is an example of a travel management company widely used in British Columbia and Canada by organizations including CIBC, Kellogg’s, and Pentax. It provides services including trip planning software for use by employees, expense and invoicing software for use by managers, and a mobile application that ensures clients can take the technology on the go. Its services have contributed to client savings, such as reducing the travel expenses for one client by almost one-fifth in their first year of use in Ontario (Concur, 2014).

BC is home to several DMCs including Cantrav, Pacific Destination Services, and Rare Indigo (Tourism Vancouver, 2014). All offer event services as well as turnkey operations (where all logistics are handled by the DMC and invoiced to the corporation).

So far we’ve looked at travel services as defined by NAICS. Next let’s have a closer look at additional services generally considered to be part of the tourism economy.

Tourism Services

Many organizations can have a hand in tourism development. These include:

• Sector-specific associations
• Tourism and hospitality human resources organizations
• Training providers
• Educational institutions
• Government branches and ministries in land use, planning, development, environmental, transportation, and other related fields
• Economic development and city planning offices

Consultants

The rest of this section describes Canadian and BC-based examples of these.

Sector-Specific Associations

Numerous not-for-profit and arm’s-length organizations drive the growth of specific segments of our industry. Examples of these associations can be found throughout this textbook in the Spotlight On features, and include groups like:

• BC Hotel Association
• Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of BC
• Restaurants Canada

These can serve as regulatory bodies, advocacy agencies, certification providers, and information sources.

Tourism and Hospitality Human Resource Support

The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC) is a national sector council responsible for best practice research, training, and other professional development support on behalf of the 174,000 tourism businesses and the 1.75 million people employed in tourism-related occupations across the country. In BC, an organization called go2HR serves to educate employers on attracting, training, and retaining employees, as well as hosts a tourism job board to match prospective employees with job options in tourism around the province.

Training Providers

Throughout this textbook, you’ll see examples of not-for-profit industry associations that provide training and certification for industry professionals. For example, the Association of Canadian Travel Agents offers a full-time and distance program to train for the occupation of certified travel counsellor. Closer to home, an organization called WorldHost, a division of Destination BC, offers world-class customer service training.

You’ll learn more about training providers and tourism human resources development in Chapter 9: Customer Service.

Educational Institutions

British Columbia is also home to a number of high-quality public and private colleges and universities that offer tourism-related educational options. Training options at these colleges and universities include certificates, diplomas, degrees and masters-level programs in adventure tourism, outdoor recreation, hospitality management, and tourism management. Whether students are learning how to manage a restaurant at Camosun College, gaining mountain adventure skills at College of the Rockies, or exploring the world of outdoor recreation and tourism management at the University of Northern BC, tomorrow’s workforce is being prepared by skilled instructors with solid industry experience.

Spotlight On: LinkBC

LinkBC is a membership-based organization that receives funding from Destination BC to support students and instructors at postsecondary institutions in connecting with the tourism industry. It hosts an annual Student Case Competition, a networking event called Student-Industry Rendezvous, and provides students with information about education options at its study tourism in BC website. For more information, visit the LinkBC website : http://linkbc.ca or Study Tourism in BC : www.studytourisminbc.ca

Government Departments

At the time this chapter was written, there were at least eight distinct provincial government ministries that had influence on tourism and hospitality development in British Columbia. These are:

• Community, Sport and Cultural Development
• Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training
• Advanced Education
• Transportation and Infrastructure
• Environment
• Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
• International Trade
• Small Business and Economic Development

Ministry names and responsibilities may change over time, but the functions performed by provincial ministries are critical to tourism operators and communities, as are the functions of similar departments at the federal level.

At the community level, tourism functions are often performed by planning officers, economic development officers, and chambers of commerce.

A final, hidden layer to the travel services sector is that of independent consultants and consulting firms. These people and companies offer services to the industry in a business-to-business format, and they vary from individuals to small-scale firms to international companies. In BC, tourism-based consulting firms include:

• IntraVISTAS: specializing in aviation and transportation logistics advising
• Chemistry Consulting: specializing in human relations and labour market development
• Tartan: a public-relations and reputation management firm

For many people trained in specific industry fields, consulting offers the opportunity to give back to the industry while maintaining workload flexibility.

Trends and Issues

Now that we have an understanding of the travel and tourism services providers in BC, let’s review some of the current trends and issues in the sector.

In the travel services sector, providers such as OTAs and business travel managers must constantly be aware of price sensitivity. Many tourism services organizations are not-for-profit entities that rely on membership dues, donations, grants, and government funding to survive. As the economic climate becomes strained and budgets are tightened, all groups are increasingly forced to demonstrate return on investment to stakeholders. As some of the benefits of travel services are difficult to define, groups must innovate or face extinction.

The challenge of budget constraints came to life in late 2014 when Destination BC announced it was shutting down its Visitor Centres at Vancouver International Airport and reviewing five other gateway locations including Peace Arch and Golden. While the airport locations welcomed over 180,000 visitors per year, analysis performed by Destination BC showed guests were asking non-tourism questions, and the centres’ value was questioned. Closing the centres at the airport, it was determined, would save $500,000 per year — but some in the industry were left wondering why they weren’t consulted prior to the announcement (Smyth, 2014).

As discussed earlier, online travel agencies have revolutionized the sector in a short span of time. Online travel bookings and marketing accounts for roughly one-third of all global e-commerce, and according to many these continue to rattle the sector.

Take a Closer Look: The Trouble with Travel Distribution

This report, by McKinsey & Company, addresses the widespread impact of technological innovations on the travel services sector. To view the report online, visit The Trouble with Travel Distribution : www.mckinsey.com/insights/travel_transportation/the_trouble_with_travel_distribution

That said, OTAs and other technology providers can benefit operators and the travel services sector as a whole. Keeping in mind that travel services pertain to the planning and reserving of trip components, recent beneficial technologic improvements include the following (Orfutt, 2013):

• Real-time and automated inventory management, ensuring operators and travellers alike are working with accurate information when planning and booking
• A pollution and weather detection chip that would help tour operators, transportation providers, and visitors anticipate, and plan for changes in conditions
• Personalized information presented to visitors to help them narrow their choices in the trip planning process, ensuring users are not overwhelmed with information, and making the most of limited screen size on mobile devices and tablets
• Social technologies and on-the-go information sharing, allowing users to plan at the last minute as they travel
• Virtual assistant holograms and tablets carrying information that can replace humans during the travel experience (for instance, at airport arrivals and visitor centres)

These innovations will likely increase as more advances are made. They also have significant implications for the marketing of travel products and experiences, which is explored more in Chapter 8.

In a time when financial resources are limited and competition for tourist dollars is strong, the travel services sector is being forced to innovate at a startling rate. With the emergence of OTAs and the rapid pace of change, it’s likely the travel services landscape will be radically different by the time you read this.

Just 20 years ago, the travel agent was paramount for booking both leisure and business travel, while today’s traveller can book a trip using a phone in a matter of minutes. This is one sector with challenging and exciting times ahead.

To this point we have learned about the five sectors of tourism: transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, recreation and entertainment, and travel services. With this foundation in place, let’s delve deeper into the industry by learning more about how these sectors are promoted to customers in Chapter 8 on services marketing.

• Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA): a trade organization established in 1977 to ensure high standards of customer service, engage in advocacy for the trade, conduct research, and facilitate travel agent training
• Canada’s West Marketplace: a partnership between Destination BC and Travel Alberta, showcasing BC travel products in a business-to-business sales environment
• Canadian Association of Tour Operators (CATO):  a membership-based organization that serves as the voice of the tour operator segment and engages in professional development and networking in the sector
• Community destination marketing organization (CDMO): a DMO that represents a city or town
• Destination management company (DMC): a company that creates and executes corporate travel and event packages designed for employee rewards or special retreats
• Destination marketing organizations (DMOs):  also known as destination management organizations; includes national tourism boards, state/provincial tourism offices, and community convention and visitor bureaus
• Familiarization tours (FAMs):  tours provided to overseas travel agents, travel agencies, RTOs, and others to provide information about a certain product at no or minimal cost to participants — the short form is pronounced like the start of the word family (not as each individual letter)
• Fully independent traveller (FIT): a traveller who makes his or her own arrangements for accommodations, transportation, and tour components; is independent of a group
• HelloBC:  online travel services platform of Destination BC providing information to the visitor and potential visitor for trip planning purposes
• Inbound tour operator:  an operator who packages products together to bring visitors from external markets to a destination
• Online travel agent (OTA):  a service that allows the traveller to research, plan, and purchase travel without the assistance of a person, using the internet on sites such as Expedia.ca or Hotels.com
• Outbound tour operator:  an operator who packages and sells travel products to people within a destination who want to travel abroad
• Receptive tour operator (RTO):  someone who represents the products of tourism suppliers to tour operators in other markets in a business-to-business (B2B) relationship
• Regional destination marketing organization (RDMO): in BC, one of the five DMOs that represent a specific tourism region
• Tour operator:  an operator who packages suppliers together (hotel + activity) or specializes in one type of activity or product
• Tourism services: other services that work to support the development of tourism and the delivery of guest experiences
• Travel agency:  a business that provides a physical location for travel planning requirements
• Travel agent:  an individual who helps the potential traveller with trip planning and booking services, often specializing in specific types of travel
• Travel services: under NAICS, businesses and functions that assist with the planning and reserving components of the visitor experience
• Visitor centre:  a building within a community usually placed at the gateway to an area, providing information regarding the region, travel planning tools, and other services including washrooms and Wi-Fi
• Explain, either in words or with a diagram, the relationship between an RTO, tour operator, and travel agent.
• What type of services does HelloBC provide to the traveller? List regional services from your area that are currently offered.
• Who operates the provincial network of Visitor Centres? Where are these centres located?
• List the RDMOs operating within BC. How do each of these work to provide information to the traveller?
• List two positives and two negatives of OTAs within the travel services industry.
• With an increase growth in mobile technology, how are travel services adapting to suit the needs and/or demands of the traveller?
• Choose an association that is representative of the sector you might like to work in (e.g., accommodations, food and beverage, travel services). Explore the association’s website and note three key issues it has identified and how it is responding to them.
• Choose a local tourism or hospitality business and find out which associations it belongs to. List the associations and their membership benefits to answer the question, Why belong to this group?

Case Study: Online Travel Agents Sue Skiplagger.com

Hidden city tickets work when the cost to travel from point A to point B to point C is less expensive than a trip from point A to point B. Passengers book the entire flight but get off at the stopover. This practice is generally forbidden by airlines because of safety concerns and challenges to logistics as it renders passenger counts inaccurate, causing potential delays and fuel miscalculations. If discovered, it can result in a passenger having his or her ticket voided.

The lawsuit against Skiplagged founder Aktarer Zaman stated that the site “intentionally and maliciously … [promoted] prohibited forms of travel” (Harris and Sasso, 2014, ¶ 4). Orbitz (an OTA) and United Airlines claimed that Zaman’s website unfairly competed with their business, while making it appear these companies were partners and endorsing the activity by linking to their websites.

Based on this case summary, answer the following questions:

• What are the dangers and inconveniences of having passengers deplane partway through a voyage? In addition to those listed here, come up with two more.
• Could this lawsuit and the ensuing publicity result in unintended negative consequences for United and Orbitz? What might these be?
• On the other hand, could the suit have unintended positive results for Skiplagged.com? Try to name at least three.
• Should Zaman be held responsible for facilitating this type of travel already in practice? Or should passengers bear the responsibility? Why or why not?
• Imagine your flight is delayed because a passenger count is inaccurate and fuel must be recalculated. What action would you take, if any?
• Look up the case to see what updates are available ( United Airlines Inc. v. Zaman , 14-cv-9214, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). Was the outcome what you predicted? Why or why not?

ACTA. (2014). About us . Retrieved from www.acta.ca/about-us

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Associated Press. (2014, March 17). Helena judge rejects state’s lawsuit against online travel companies. The Missoulian. Retrieved from http://missoulian.com/business/local/helena-judge-rejects-state-s-lawsuit-against-online-travel-companies/article_61b115d2-adfe-11e3-9b8d-0019bb2963f4.html

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Canadian Tourism Commission. (2015). Rendez-vous Canada 2015 – Welcome . Retrieved from http://rendezvouscanada.travel/

Carey, R., Kang, K., & Zea, M. (2012). The trouble with travel distribution . Retrieved from  www.mckinsey.com/insights/travel_transportation/the_trouble_with_travel_distribution

CATO. (2014). About the travel industry . Retrieved from www.cato.ca/industry.php

Concur. (2014). Concur case studies – Concur Canada . Retrieved from www.concur.ca/casestudy

CWT Travel Management Institute. (2014). Who’s equipped for mobile services .  www.cwtinsights.com/demand/whos-equipped-for-mobile-services.shtml

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Economist, The . (2014, June 21). Sun, sea and surfing. Retrieved from www.economist.com/news/business/21604598-market-booking-travel-online-rapidly-consolidating-sun-sea-and-surfing

ETC Digital. (2014). Mobile smartphones – North America . Retrieved from http://etc-digital.org/digital-trends/mobile-devices/mobile-smartphones/regional-overview/north-america/

Expedia, Inc. (2014). The future of travel report . [PDF] Retrieved from http://expediablog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Future-of-Travel-Report1.pdf

GBTA. (2014). About GBTA Canada . Retrieved from www.gbta.org/Canada/about/Pages/Default.aspx

Goeldner, C. & Ritchie, B. (2003). Tourism: principles, practices, philosophies, 9th edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Government of Canada. (2014). NAICS 2007 – 5615 travel arrangement and reservation services . Retrieved from http://stds.statcan.gc.ca/naics-scian/2007/cs-rc-eng.asp?criteria=5615

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Harris, A. & Sasso, M. (2014). United, Orbitz sue travel site over ‘hidden city’ tickets. Bloomberg Business. Retrieved from www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-18/united-orbitz-sue-travel-site-over-hidden-city-ticketing-1-

HelloBC. (2014a). About us. Retrieved from www.hellobc.com/british-columbia.aspx

HelloBC. (2014b). Visitor information network . Retrieved from www.hellobc.com/british-columbia/about-bc/visitor-centres.aspx

HelloBC. (2014c). Regions. Retrieved from www.hellobc.com/british-columbia.aspx

Hotel Marketing. (2013). Travel agency demand . Retrieved from http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/travel_agencies_versus_the_internet_global_booking_trends/

Offutt, B. (2013). PhoCusWright’s travel innovations & technology trends: 2013 and beyond. [PDF] Retrieved from www.wtmlondon.com/files/pcwi_traveltechtrends2013_worldtravel.pdf

Prince of Whales. (2014).  About us . Retrieved from http://princeofwhales.com

SGSEP. (2012). Trends in visitor information centres. [PDF] Urbecon, 1.   Retrieved from www.sgsep.com.au/assets/Urbecon-Vol-1-2012-web.pdf

Smyth, M. (2014, November 20). Why is the BC government shutting down popular tourist info without consulting industry? The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from www.theprovince.com/life/Smyth+government+shutting+down+popular+tourist+info+centres+without+consulting+industry/10396500/story.html#__federated=1

Tourism Vancouver. (2014). Destination management companies . Retrieved from  www.tourismvancouver.com/meetings/service-your-meeting/suppliers/destination-management-companies/

Travel Agents in BC. (2014). Travel agents . Retrieved from www.yellowpages.ca/search/si/1/Travel+Agencies/Vancouver+BC

Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture. (2013). Tourism sectors.  Retrieved from www.tc.gov.yk.ca/isu_sectors.html

Attributions

Figure 7.1 HelloBC Homepage  by LinkBC is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Figure 7.2   Travels Agent, Huddersfield by Dave Collier  is used under a CC-BY-ND 2.0  license.

Figure 7.3   my AT&T PC 6300 circa 1996  by Blake Patterson  is used under a  CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 7.4   Up on the glacier by  Paul Gorbould is used under a CC BY NC ND 2.0 license.

Figure 7.5   Whales off Victoria, BC  by Brian Estabrooks is used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 7.6  Visitor Information  by Heather Harvey is used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0  license.

Figure 7.7   Floe Lake, Kootenay National Park 037  by Adam Kahtava  is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 7.8   Tourism Vancouver’s Rick Antonson addresses the audience at Rendezvous  by  LinkBC  is used under a CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 7.9   5 Top Rated Tablet PCs  by Siddartha Thota  is used under a  CC-BY 2.0 license.

Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC Copyright © 2015 by Heather Knowles and Morgan Westcott is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Published: 09 April 2024

Impacts of remote work on vehicle miles traveled and transit ridership in the USA

• Yunhan Zheng   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5114-7561 1 , 2 ,
• Shenhao Wang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4374-8193 3 ,
• Lun Liu 4 ,
• Jim Aloisi 5 &
• Jinhua Zhao 5  

Nature Cities ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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The potential of remote work as a sustainable mobility solution has garnered attention, particularly due to its widespread adoption during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Our study systematically examines the impacts of remote work on vehicle miles traveled and transit ridership in the USA from April 2020 to October 2022. Here we find that, using the prepandemic levels as the baselines, a mere 1% decrease in onsite workers corresponds to a 0.99% reduction in state-level vehicle miles traveled and a 2.26% drop in metropolitan statistical area-level transit ridership. Notably, a 10% decrease in onsite workers compared with the prepandemic level could yield a consequential annual reduction of 191.8 million metric tons (10%) in CO 2 emissions from the transportation sector, alongside a substantial US$3.7 billion (26.7%) annual loss in transit fare revenues within the contiguous USA. These findings offer policymakers crucial insights into how different remote work policies can impact urban transport and environmental sustainability as remote work continues to persist.

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Data availability.

The data used for this study are sourced from publicly available databases and detailed information about each variable’s source can be found in the ‘Data’ section of Methods . The compiled datasets can be accessed on GitHub at https://github.com/zhengyunhan/remote_work_mobility (ref. 61 ).

Code availability

The code used for conducting the analysis is accessible on GitHub at https://github.com/zhengyunhan/remote_work_mobility (ref. 61 ).

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Acknowledgements

This work is funded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative and the Barr Foundation, and by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore, under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) program. The Mens, Manus, and Machina (M3S) is an interdisciplinary research group (IRG) of the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre. S.W. acknowledges the support from the Research Opportunity Seed Fund 2023 from the University of Florida. L.L. acknowledges the support from Beijing Social Science Foundation (20GLA003).

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Yunhan Zheng

Singapore–MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre, Singapore, Singapore

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Shenhao Wang

School of Government, Peking University, Beijing, China

Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Jim Aloisi & Jinhua Zhao

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Y.Z. contributed to conceptualization, methodology, data curation, modeling, visualization, formal analysis, result interpretation, writing—original draft and writing—review and editing. S.W. contributed to formal analysis, result interpretation and writing—review and editing. L.L. contributed to formal analysis and result interpretation. J.A. contributed to result interpretation, supervision, project administration and funding acquisition. J.Z. contributed to formal analysis, result interpretation, supervision, project administration and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Shenhao Wang .

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Zheng, Y., Wang, S., Liu, L. et al. Impacts of remote work on vehicle miles traveled and transit ridership in the USA. Nat Cities (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00057-1

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Americans who have traveled internationally are more interested in and knowledgeable about foreign affairs, feel closer to others around the world, and favor a more active foreign policy, according to the survey of 3,576 U.S. adults conducted in spring 2023. We also surveyed people in 23 other countries about their international travel habits.

This analysis examines international travel with a focus on Americans’ travel, including which Americans travel abroad and how their interest in the world and views of international affairs differ from others.

For this analysis, we surveyed 3,576 U.S. adults from March 20 to March 26, 2023; 3,581 U.S. adults from March 21 to March 27, 2022; and 10,606 U.S. adults from June 14 to June 27, 2021. Everyone who took part in these surveys is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

For non-U.S. data, this report draws on nationally representative surveys of 27,285 adults conducted from Feb. 20 to May 22, 2023. All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surveys were conducted face-to-face in Hungary, Poland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. In Australia, we used a mixed-mode probability-based online panel.

Here are the June 2021 survey questions and responses used in this analysis. Those for the March 2022 survey may be found here , as well as those for the March 2023 survey .

How many Americans have traveled internationally?

Roughly three-quarters of Americans (76%) have visited at least one other country, including 26% who have been to five or more. About a quarter (23%) have not traveled internationally, though most in this group say they would if they had the opportunity.

Related:  How experience with international travel varies across 24 countries

To analyze how Americans’ travel experiences relate to their attitudes on other questions, we placed people into three categories:

• Globe-trotters have traveled to at least five other countries. About a quarter of the U.S. public (26%) falls into this category.
• Casual travelers have traveled to between one and four other countries. Half of Americans fall into this category.
• Nontravelers have never left the United States. This category includes 23% of Americans.

Compared with Americans, people in many European nations are more likely to have traveled to five or more other countries. For instance, 88% of Swedes have done so.

However, international travel is much less common in many middle-income nations. It is strongly correlated with a nation’s gross domestic product per capita. (For more on international travel and views about global engagement, read “Attitudes on an Interconnected World.” )

Who travels internationally?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, older people are more likely than younger people to have traveled internationally. Americans ages 65 and older are more than twice as likely as adults under 30 to fall into our globe-trotter category (37% vs. 17%).

Income is even more strongly related to travel than age. Two-thirds of upper-income Americans have traveled to at least five countries, compared with 9% of Americans with lower incomes.

Similarly, Americans with a postgraduate degree are far more likely to be globe-trotters than those with a high school education or less (59% vs. 10%).

Residents of suburban and urban areas generally have more international travel experience than people who live in rural areas.

There are no significant partisan differences when it comes to international travel: 26% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents qualify as globe-trotters, as do 28% of Republicans and GOP leaners.

Do travelers know more about the world?

Globe-trotters are especially likely to say they are interested in foreign affairs and follow international news. Casual travelers, in turn, are more likely than nontravelers to do so.

Globe-trotters are also the most knowledgeable about international affairs. In 2022, we conducted an international affairs quiz , asking Americans 12 questions related to international news. On average, globe-trotters got 8.2 of the 12 questions correct, compared with 6.4 for casual travelers and 4.2 for nontravelers.

Is international travel related to views of global engagement?

International travel experience is also linked to Americans’ views about international affairs and their feelings of connection to other people around the world.

When asked which comes closest to their view, 57% of globe-trotters say the U.S. should be active in world affairs, while 43% say the U.S. should pay less attention to problems in other countries and concentrate on problems at home. In contrast, most casual travelers and nontravelers say the U.S. should focus on problems at home.

In all three groups, at least half of respondents say that when the U.S. is making foreign policy, it should take other countries’ interests into account – even if that means making compromises. But globe-trotters are especially likely to hold that view.

Globe-trotters are also particularly likely to say they feel close to people around the world, with 42% saying so. By comparison, 34% of casual travelers and 30% of nontravelers say this.

• International Affairs

Richard Wike is director of global attitudes research at Pew Research Center

Janell Fetterolf is a senior researcher focusing on global attitudes at Pew Research Center

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NTSMY0101: Trips, distance travelled and time taken: England, year ending June 2023 ( ODS , 7.24 KB )

NTSMY0303: Average number of trips, stages, miles and time spent travelling by mode: England, year ending June 2023 ( ODS , 12.4 KB )

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Biden-Harris Administration Announces Final Rule Requiring Automatic Refunds of Airline Tickets and Ancillary Service Fees

Rule makes it easy to get money back for cancelled or significantly changed flights, significantly delayed checked bags, and additional services not provided  

WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris Administration today announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a final rule that requires airlines to promptly provide passengers with automatic cash refunds when owed. The new rule makes it easy for passengers to obtain refunds when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their checked bags, or fail to provide the extra services they purchased.

“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them - without headaches or haggling,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg . “Our new rule sets a new standard to require airlines to promptly provide cash refunds to their passengers.”  

The final rule creates certainty for consumers by defining the specific circumstances in which airlines must provide refunds. Prior to this rule, airlines were permitted to set their own standards for what kind of flight changes warranted a refund. As a result, refund policies differed from airline to airline, which made it difficult for passengers to know or assert their refund rights. DOT also received complaints of some airlines revising and applying less consumer-friendly refund policies during spikes in flight cancellations and changes. 

Under the rule, passengers are entitled to a refund for:

• Canceled or significantly changed flights: Passengers will be entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled or significantly changed, and they do not accept alternative transportation or travel credits offered. For the first time, the rule defines “significant change.” Significant changes to a flight include departure or arrival times that are more than 3 hours domestically and 6 hours internationally; departures or arrivals from a different airport; increases in the number of connections; instances where passengers are downgraded to a lower class of service; or connections at different airports or flights on different planes that are less accessible or accommodating to a person with a disability.  
• Significantly delayed baggage return: Passengers who file a mishandled baggage report will be entitled to a refund of their checked bag fee if it is not delivered within 12 hours of their domestic flight arriving at the gate, or 15-30 hours of their international flight arriving at the gate, depending on the length of the flight.  
• Extra services not provided: Passengers will be entitled to a refund for the fee they paid for an extra service — such as Wi-Fi, seat selection, or inflight entertainment — if an airline fails to provide this service.

DOT’s final rule also makes it simple and straightforward for passengers to receive the money they are owed. Without this rule, consumers have to navigate a patchwork of cumbersome processes to request and receive a refund — searching through airline websites to figure out how make the request, filling out extra “digital paperwork,” or at times waiting for hours on the phone. In addition, passengers would receive a travel credit or voucher by default from some airlines instead of getting their money back, so they could not use their refund to rebook on another airline when their flight was changed or cancelled without navigating a cumbersome request process.  

The final rule improves the passenger experience by requiring refunds to be:

• Automatic: Airlines must automatically issue refunds without passengers having to explicitly request them or jump through hoops.   
• Prompt: Airlines and ticket agents must issue refunds within seven business days of refunds becoming due for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.  
• Cash or original form of payment: Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in cash or whatever original payment method the individual used to make the purchase, such as credit card or airline miles. Airlines may not substitute vouchers, travel credits, or other forms of compensation unless the passenger affirmatively chooses to accept alternative compensation.    
• Full amount: Airlines and ticket agents must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used. The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees, regardless of whether the taxes or fees are refundable to airlines.

The final rule also requires airlines to provide prompt notifications to consumers affected by a cancelled or significantly changed flight of their right to a refund of the ticket and extra service fees, as well as any related policies.

In addition, in instances where consumers are restricted by a government or advised by a medical professional not to travel to, from, or within the United States due to a serious communicable disease, the final rule requires that airlines must provide travel credits or vouchers. Consumers may be required to provide documentary evidence to support their request. Travel vouchers or credits provided by airlines must be transferrable and valid for at least five years from the date of issuance.

The Department received a significant number of complaints against airlines and ticket agents for refusing to provide a refund or for delaying processing of refunds during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, refund complaints peaked at 87 percent of all air travel service complaints received by DOT. Refund problems continue to make up a substantial share of the complaints that DOT receives.

DOT’s Historic Record of Consumer Protection Under the Biden-Harris Administration

Under the Biden-Harris Administration and Secretary Buttigieg, DOT has advanced the largest expansion of airline passenger rights, issued the biggest fines against airlines for failing consumers, and returned more money to passengers in refunds and reimbursements than ever before in the Department’s history.

• Thanks to pressure from Secretary Buttigieg and DOT’s flightrights.gov dashboard, all 10 major U.S. airlines guarantee free rebooking and meals, and nine guarantee hotel accommodations when an airline issue causes a significant delay or cancellation. These are new commitments the airlines added to their customer service plans that DOT can legally ensure they adhere to and are displayed on flightrights.gov .  
• Since President Biden took office, DOT has helped return more than $3 billion in refunds and reimbursements owed to airline passengers – including over $600 million to passengers affected by the Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown in 2022.   
• Under Secretary Buttigieg, DOT has issued over $164 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations. Between 1996 and 2020, DOT collectively issued less than $71 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations.  
• DOT recently launched a new partnership with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to fast-track the review of consumer complaints, hold airlines accountable, and protect the rights of the traveling public.  
• In 2023, the flight cancellation rate in the U.S. was a record low at under 1.2% — the lowest rate of flight cancellations in over 10 years despite a record amount of air travel.  
• DOT is undertaking its first ever industry-wide review of airline privacy practices and its first review of airline loyalty programs.

In addition to finalizing the rules to require automatic refunds and protect against surprise fees, DOT is also pursuing rulemakings that would:

• Propose to ban family seating junk fees and guarantee that parents can sit with their children for no extra charge when they fly. Before President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg pressed airlines last year, no airline committed to guaranteeing fee-free family seating. Now, four airlines guarantee fee-free family seating, and the Department is working on its family seating junk fee ban proposal.  
• Propose to make passenger compensation and amenities mandatory so that travelers are taken care of when airlines cause flight delays or cancellations.   
• Expand the rights for passengers who use wheelchairs and ensure that they can travel safely and with dignity . The comment period on this proposed rule closes on May 13, 2024.

The final rule on refunds can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/latest-news and at regulations.gov , docket number DOT-OST-2022-0089. There are different implementation periods in this final rule ranging from six months for airlines to provide automatic refunds when owed to 12 months for airlines to provide transferable travel vouchers or credits when consumers are unable to travel for reasons related to a serious communicable disease. 

Information about airline passenger rights, as well as DOT’s rules, guidance and orders, can be found at   https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer .