Airfares will continue to decline in 2015, with popular destinations in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America showing price drops ranging from 4% to 6% year-over-year. This is according to a mid-year study conducted by Expedia and Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), titled Travel check-up: Air Travel Trends 2015.
The study also reveals that ticket prices for the first half of 2015 declined about 2% on average across Europe and North America, while travellers in Asia Pacific experienced an average of 7% airfare price decline.
Over the years, similar reports have found that travellers tend to plan around the price of tickets.
It was found that travellers who had booked trips between June and September could potentially save about US$648 (R8 000) across hotel and flight reservations.
The report found that travellers were more likely to save money when buying packages (flight + hotel + rental car). London, Maui and Paris ranked as the top three cities where travellers could save the most by buying package deals. Travellers could save up to 30%, 22% and 24% respectively on these cities. It is expected that the frequency of package purchases will increase this year.
Another trend identified by the study, is that outbound travel from China is growing rapidly and that the Chinese Yuan is gaining strength against the US dollar. These factors are expected to increase the number of Chinese visitors to the US.
Exchange rates are also driving travel trends, specifically the length of a passenger’s stay. The study found that given the strength of the dollar, travellers from the US were planning to stay longer in Europe this year. Furthermore, school trips from the US to Europe have shown a 6% increase from August 2014 to August 2015.
However, it was found that between Asia Pacific, Europe and the US, travellers were spending shorter times in local destinations. The study says that this could be a result of globalisation.
Overall, the length of stay for passengers in August 2015 has grown 23% since August 2014 (trips from the US to Europe now average 25 days instead of 20).
The data used for the study considered other industry resources such as those from Iata and the Airline Tariff Publishing Company.
The study concludes that 2015 is shaping up to be a positive year for travel.
Source: eTNW
Expect a drop in airfares
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