Originally Posted by
ijgordon
I actually think those flights are full, even up front, with high-end leisure travelers.
Business travel is still lagging. You can look at hotel average rates/REVPAR for, say, resorts vs. urban, and for weekends vs. weekday, and the resorts/weekends have shown meaningful more growth vs. pre-pandemic. Business travel is starting to come back more aggressively now, but Zoom and ESG/carbon footprint concerns will probably limit the recovery somewhat. And then of course the economy is a wildcard.
The other aspect that I haven’t seen talked as much about is how the shift to Hybrid work-from-anywhere is effectively giving people more vacation-days/PTO to travel, beyond just work-from-anywhere travel.
There are many folks who in 2019 worked nearly 100% in the office, and now in 2022 work a hybrid work schedule. These folks previously would have to burn vacation time/days for things like being at home to let the furnace repair guy in, or staying at home if their kid had a half day at school. There are tons of examples, but the point is many things that previously required time-off-work don’t because they can be achieved on a work-from-home day, even if the schedule is hybrid.
So even though the vacation/PTO rules probably haven’t changed for most, the days off go farther in 2022 vs 2019. And with “more” vacation days and opportunities, more leisure travel follows.