By Staff Reporter
2022 may be the year of the “bucket list” trip, if the year 2021 was about domestic travel. Despite 2022′s wild start with the omicron Covid-19 variant which has twisted the industry, this is one of the biggest trends that travel insiders expect in 2022.
The travellers feel they have lost two years. People are desperate to get away and are not shying from those international destinations, big, and once-in-a-lifetime adventures.”
Expedia is calling 2022 the year of the GOAT, or the “Greatest Of All Trips.”
A survey reports of 12,000 travellers in 12 countries is found that 65percent of respondents are planning to “go big” on their next trip, according to a company representative. Consequently, it named the desire for exciting and extravagant trips “the biggest travel trend” of the year.
Amadeus is seeing a jump in searches to “epic destinations.” Searches to Tanzania (+36percent), flights to Jordan’s Petra (+22percent) and bookings to cities near Machu Picchu (nearly +50percent) rose from 2020 to 2021, according to the report.
These trends are expected to grow in 2022, along with interest in islands in the Indian Ocean as well as Antarctica, according to the report.
The pandemic has changed the “mood of the travellers.” There’s “a psychological effect prevailing now is the moment.”
The international destinations drawing the biggest search increases in 2022, compared with 2019, are Tuscany, Italy (+141percent), the Bahamas (+129percent), French Polynesia’s Bora Bora (+98 percent), the Maldives (+97percent) and the south of France (+88percent), according to the report.
While financially devastating for some, the pandemic has allowed other professionals to hit more savings who have been able to work from home.
Some 70% of leisure travellers’ in major countries like the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Japan and Spain — plan to spend more on travel in 2022 than they have in the past five years,
Travellers may be willing to pay more to go to certain places, rather than to make the trip itself more luxurious. Twice as many U.S. respondents indicated they were willing to spend more to see “bucket list” destinations (32percent) rather than book luxury experiences (15 percent) or room or flight upgrades (16percent), according to Expedia.
People are celebrating missed milestones, often with extended family, Family reunion-style vacations will be popular in 2022.
Destinations that provide for large multi-generation families, such as those with a high inventory of large villas that includes the Caribbean, Mexico and Maldives, are seeing an uptick in bookings.”
The U.K. saw an explosion of bookings by large groups once restrictions eased, according to Amadeus.
Big trips often require big plans, which results in a renewed demand for travel agents, Professional planners can help travelers navigate “Covid-19 tests, restrictions, changes in entry requirements, visas, flights, accommodation, activities and backup plans’.