Domestic tourism: At first sight, logic would suggest that those countries who have led the race to stamp out coronavirus should be the first to recover economically.Think again.
While New Zealand and Vietnam may gain well-deserved credit for making all the right moves to keep their citizens’ safe, their financial battle is far from over. In recent years, both these relatively small nations’ coffers have been substantially boosted by one industry that promises to be one of the very last to recover from the pandemic – global rather than domestic tourism.
Amid all the the talk of a red-, amber- and green-light relaxation of self-isolation and social distancing as governments around the world look at ways of administering CPR to their half-dead economies, it is a racing certainty that the international travel industry will be one of the last to return to full health.
Which is good news for its domestic counterparts; according to Bimble, its UK-centric travel app has enjoyed a 70% increase in traffic since Boris Johnson’s government imposed its lockdown on March 23, with users creating personalised lists of post-isolation dream destinations on its platform; and almost half of those travel plans were UK focussed, a 25% increase on the norm..Investors looking for a medium- to longer-term haven for their funds should therefore focus on domestic hoteliers and travel companies with much larger indigenous consumer bases than either Vietnam or New Zealand. According to the OECD, by this benchmark the most promising markets for domestic tourism are the US, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Spain and Australia.