Business Travel Recovery Won’t Get Any Boost by U.S. Global Travel Reopening
Photo Credit: The U.S. will allow vaccinated international air travelers to visit for non-essential travel starting November 8. Unsplash / Austin Hervias
Skift Take
Don’t expect an immediate return to 2019 levels of business travel traffic despite the hype in the buildup to the U.S. reopening borders on November 8.
Slowly does it is the message ahead of the restart of one the world’s most important travel corridors.
Airlines are gearing up for an influx of passengers after the U.S. announced it would allow vaccinated international air travelers to visit for non-essential travel from November 8. However, high pricing, nervousness about a Covid-19 resurgence, and under-staffed travel agencies may cool things down.
“I’ve been really surprised by how expensive some fares are,” said Stephanie Glanzer, senior vice president and chief sales officer at Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts. “We’re seeing that across all aspects of travel. At some point it’s going to have to stabilize, especially as airlines add back more flights overall.”
Las Vegas has been booming this fall, but Glanzer said much of the conference and exhibition activity was a “compression” of events that were postponed during the pandemic. “There’s been a drastic ramp up in the past few m
