Tour operators are seeing customers book more international trips for 2010, indicating that U.S. travelers are starting to invest more in their vacations again and are feeling secure enough in their jobs to leave the office for longer.
"Travel is the ultimate barometer of consumer confidence," said Steve Born, vice president of marketing for the Globus Family of Brands, which among several operators has seen long-haul international business returning after a year when close-to-home travel — or little to no travel — was often favored over pricier trips.
Bookings for Europe, a high-volume destination for most operators, reflect a sizeable increase in demand across the board.
"Europe is up more than 50%," said Richard Launder, president of TravCorp USA, the parent of several brands, including Trafalgar, Insight and Brendan Vacations. "That gets us back to 2008 levels and over. So in a sense, we’ve come back."
Tom Armstrong, corporate communications manager for Tauck World Discovery, reported Europe is "going gangbusters."
Paula Twidale, executive vice president at Collette Vacations, said the Europe resurgence was being felt particularly in Italy, Greece, Ireland and Britain. Bookings for Collette’s Italy tours are up between 30% and 50% compared with this time last year.
"Europe is back," said Born. "We’ve already more than recovered what we lost in 2009."
According to Born, Globus has recorded a 60% increase in bookings to Europe for 2010 compared to the same time last year for its Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways brands.
"People didn’t write off Europe long-term," Born added. Among the factors helping rebuild market, he said, are attractive pricing due to escorted operators hedging currency favorably last year; lower airfares for the time being; and the decennial passion play in Oberammergau, Germany.
Avalon, Globus’ river cruise brand, "is also helping that return to Europe." Avalon’s bookings are up 83%, he said, noting that the inventory is 75% booked even with t
he addition of two newbuilds this year.
Hot destinations for Globus in 2010 are Spain, up 90% in bookings over 2009; Italy, up 63%; and France, up more than 50%.
While such gains in Europe reflect a recovering market, the growth in demand to the long-haul destinations of Australia and New Zealand is even more encouraging from a consumer confidence point of view.
"The fact that [the South Pacific] is up is a very positive sign in terms of the psyche of the consumer," said Launder. "South Pacific air is expensive relative to European air. It’s considered more a long-haul destination. You don’t have eight-day tours to Australia. And it’s coming back strong."
At Globus, bookings for the South Pacific are up 81% in 2010.
Other long-haul destinations throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East are feeling the uptick too.
"We are beginning to see a resurgence in business. It started back in December 2009 and continues to grow. People are beginning to book long-haul trips again," Marilyn Downing Staff, founder and president of Asia Transpacific Journeys, wrote in an email.
Downing Staff said that business was up about 25% over this time last year, with the strongest growth in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India and China.
"We all in our own ways, me included, were nervous about how much money we would spend in 2009," Launder said. "We saw that across all of our brands. There was a real reluctance to go out and spend. It was a consumer psyche thing."
He added, "In a sense, we’ve overcome this massive doubt about he economy, about the banking system, about employment, about the currency.
"We always talk about this buying process from the dreaming stage to the booking stage. In 2009, people just had to dream an extra year."