Greetings and welcome to June’s travel insights blog, where we share our latest trends and flight data alongside our traveller sentiment analysis.

Traveller confidence is at its highest since the start of the pandemic 

These are the results from our weekly pulse survey of thousands of travellers across 19 key markets.

Perception of the global situation

The most recent insights from our weekly pulse survey reveal that travellers around the world are more confident than at any other time during the pandemic – with over 73% believing the global situation regarding COVID-19 is improving.

• 73% think it’s improving, the same as last week but up from 72% the week before.
  
  
• 19% think it’s staying the same, down from 20% last week but the same as 19% the week before.
  
  
• 8% think it’s getting worse, the same as last week but down from 9% the week before.

On a regional level, travellers in the Americas are the most optimistic, closely followed by those in EMEA. People in APAC are the least optimistic but figures have risen quickly in the past couple of weeks. Just 6% of travellers in AMER and 7% in EMEA believe the situation is getting worse.

AMER

• 78% think it’s improving, down from 79% last week but the same as 78% the week before.
  
  
• 16% think it’s staying the same, up from 15% last week and the week before.
  
  
• 6% think it’s getting worse, the same as last week but down from 7% the week before.

EMEA

• 75% think it’s improving, up from 73% last week and the week before.
   
• 18% think it’s staying the same, down from 20% last week and the week before.
  
  
• 7% think it’s getting worse, the same as last week and the week before. 

APAC

• 57% think it’s improving, the same as last week but up from 49% the week before.
  
  
• 26% think it’s staying the same, down from 27% last week but the same as 26% the week before.
  
  
• 17% think it’s getting worse, the same as last week but down from 25% the week before.

Sunset at a hot air balloon festival in the Turkish region of Cappadocia.

Perception of the domestic situation

Similar to the global sentiment data, the number of travellers believing their domestic situation is getting better is at its highest level since the pandemic began.

• 73% think it’s improving, down from 75% last week and the week before.
  
  
• 16% think it’s staying the same, down from 17% last week and the week before.
  
  
• 11% think it’s getting worse, up from 10% last week and the week before.

On a regional level, travellers in EMEA are by far the most optimistic, followed by those in AMER and APAC. Just 8% of travellers in EMEA feel the situation is getting worse.

EMEA

• 80% think it’s improving, down from 81% last week and 82% the week before.
  
  
• 12% think it’s staying the same, down from 13% last week and the week before.
  
  
• 8% think it’s getting worse, up from 6% last week and 5% the week before.

AMER

• 67% think it’s improving, down from 71% last week and 69% the week before.
  
  
• 20% think it’s staying the same, up from 16% last week and 15% the week before.
  
  
• 13% think it’s getting worse, the same as last week but down from 16% the week before.

APAC

• 58% think it’s improving, up from 57% last week and 47% the week before.
  
  
• 26% think it’s staying the same, up from 23% last week but down from 27% the week before.
  
  
• 16% think it’s getting worse, down from 19% last week and 26% the week before.

Get ready for The Return of Travel

For our first Skyscanner Horizons report – ‘The Return of Travel’ – we analysed three years of search and booking data to reveal how traveller habits are changing and what 2021’s peak season will look like.

Find out 2021's big emerging new trends by downloading your free report.

Watch our Return of Travel webinar

This week, we hosted a special Return of Travel webinar, where we unveiled key takeaways from the report and discussed travel’s most pressing topics, including the importance of innovation and collaboration in its return.

82% of UK travellers are planning 2022 trips

As 2021's international travel hopes have gotten off to a shaky start, we asked our community of engaged UK travellers what they’re thinking about travel and it’s clear that 2022 is going to be a big year for trips overseas – with planning and saving unconventionally kicking off over 12 months in advance.*

Highlights from the survey include:

• Over three-quarters of participants are planning a trip in 2022
  
  
• Almost two-thirds are already saving for their trips next year
  
  
• Over one-third are planning to work remotely as part of this trip
  
  
• Top-searched destinations for 2022 include skiing and long-haul favourites
  
  
• Long-haul trips will be the most popular (34%)

A traveller sits on a mountain on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife.

After a year of rescheduling and changing travel plans, a massive 63% of those surveyed revealed they're already putting money away for a 2022 trip. A third (33%) said they planned to go away for more than two weeks and over a quarter (28%) revealed they're planning to spend more than they normally would. 

When asked for the main motive behind their trip, 30% of travellers said spending time away with their family. 35% are planning to tag on some time working to maximise their getaway, tapping into the growing ‘digital nomad’ trend.

The top searched destinations for 2022, (economy class, return travel from the UK) searched over the last month are: 

1. Orlando 
2. Manchester 
3. Bangkok 
4. New York 
5. Sydney 
6. Tenerife 
7. Geneva 
8. Miami 
9. Tokyo 
10. Las Vegas 

When asked what would deter them from travelling this year, the most popular answer was fear of rules and regulations changing (30%), while fear of having to quarantine was the second most popular (21%). 

Skyscanner’s pricing and deals expert, Gavin Harris, comments: 

“Brits are craving this change of scenery (and weather!) but are increasingly focused on planning 2022 trips of a lifetime.  

“Where in this last year we saw the pandemic drive people to book travel much closer to departure due to ongoing uncertainty, we are now starting to see travel bookings normalise and move towards a seasonal pattern. Many people have had to re-schedule and change trips in the last year and planning a big getaway in 2022 to tick off the travel bucket list is a trend we’re going to see more off."

In two weeks, we'll share more data and insights on our blog, as well as keeping you updated with how we're helping travellers and the industry during the pandemic.

*Skyscanner surveyed between 1000 UK respondents between 11 June - 15 June 2021. Survey conducted online via Skyscanner.net.