TravelPerk, a travel management company, released new data about travel costs. According to the latest data, for the very first time in 2022, travel expenses have fallen in Europe in 2022 for the very first time.
The research shows an 8% decline in global travel costs, including rail, flights, and accommodation over 2022’s final three months versus the third quarter. And, the third quarter includes July and August which are the peak months for summer leisure travel.
Going from the third quarter to the fourth, flights to and from London have become cheaper by 38%, following a significant decline in prices.
During the summer, a drip in travel expenses was in trend in the US market and Europe followed the same.
With 7% in flights, 3% in hotels, and 2% in rail travel, TravelPerk stated that most travel components had seen a decline in global costs in 2022’s final three months. However, with prices rising by 6% in Q4, renting cars is the only segment that bucked this trend.
Even after the current drop, travel costs are still 26% higher than what they were in 2021 and 20% higher than those in 2019 last quarter. Airfares are nevertheless 34% costlier than pre-Covid costs, even though these are down from being 60% costlier in April and May 2022.
Data confirmed an 11% fall in European airfares in Q4 versus Q3, 15% in Spain, and 12% in the UK. Additionally, there have been sizeable drops in France (9%) and Germany (8%).
On a similar scale, accommodation costs in Europe are 7% less than what they were in Q3. And, the vacation hotspot Spain has seen a 10% quarter-on-quarter decline. Some cities have observed the steepest drops in costs for hotel accommodation including Edinburgh (24%), Barcelona (18%), Dublin (15%) and Munich (12%).
TravelPerk’s Chief Revenue Officer, JC Taunay Bucalo, said, “2022 has seen a huge recovery in travel, particularly business travel, as organizations from throughout the world have finally been in a position to put COVID behind. That surge in demand, plus a range of different external factors, led to considerable inflation in the price of flights, rail, and accommodation this year.
“Until now, inflationary restoration had been restricted to the US. However, we are now seeing Europe catching up, with expenses for accommodation and flights coming down throughout the continent. With expenditures remaining steady in the US following a fall in the last quarter, this adds up to a marked and very welcome cooling off after the summertime peak. Demand stays high amongst enterprise travellers, regardless of the rise in costs. However, we do expect to see modifications in reservation patterns as employers and individuals adapt.”