Loss of $21B in business travel to dampen hotel recovery
April 20, 2022 | The Real Deal
As hotels fight to recover from the pandemic’s ravages, a continued downturn of business travel will continue to harm the market.
Hotel revenue from business travel will remain 23 percent below 2019 levels in 2022, American according to a forecast from the Hotel & Lodging Association and Kalibri Labs reported by Bloomberg. The nationwide shortfall amounts to a projected $20.7 billion revenue loss when compared to three years ago.
Though leisure travel is forecast to exceed pre-pandemic levels, hotel revenue from business travel is projected to hit $69 billion this year, well short of 2019’s $90 billion mark. Still, the forecast is looking better than it did the previous two years, when hotels lost an estimated $108 billion in revenue.
Unfortunately for the sector, the forecast shows business travel isn’t expected to recover until 2024 at the earliest.
