What: Adventure Travel Suffered in 2020, But 2021 Is Looking Better
Recent research from the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) revealed the severity of COVID-19’s toll on the adventure travel industry: 95% of survey respondents say they made less in 2020 than they did in 2019, with three-quarters reporting more than an 80% reduction in revenue. Respondents served just 560 guests on average in 2020, compared to 3,974 in 2019, and 16% had zero guests last year. The future, however, is looking more positive, with 55% of respondents expecting their 2021 net profit to be better than 2020.
Why It Matters: Tour Operators Are Adapting and Updating Their Offerings
The adventure travel industry, like many others, had to adapt to survive the pandemic. Changes that travel advisors can expect to see among tour operator partners include new or updated products (60% of outbound buyers), reduced business size or capacity (50%), more custom travel solutions (33%) and more locally focused products (25%). In addition, agents can anticipate seeing more domestic adventure offerings than in the past, as 70% of suppliers have seen an increase in demand and many are shifting their focus as a result.
Fast Facts:
- Tour operators are also creating new policies to protect their business or travelers’ funds: 80% have modified their cancellation policies while 29% have changed their partner agreements.
- Areas of increased expenditure include improving safety and risk management (31%), spending more on training (29%) and putting more money into employee retention (21%).
- Seventy percent of international respondents note an improvement in domestic travel demand for 2021 and 2022 — half indicate it’s moving slowly, while 21% say they are “quite busy again.” International travel’s rebound is not quite as robust, with 47% seeing a slow return and 17% quite busy.
- While 36% of respondents say they are financially prepared to get through the crisis, 18% indicate that they are possibly or definitely closing down. Almost half are interested in receiving financial assistance.
- Survey respondents represented a global sampling, with approximately half from the Americas, 19% from Europe, 15% from Asia and the remainder from other regions.
- The research for this survey was conducted as part of the 2021 Adventure Travel Industry Snapshot report, which will be released in full in September.
The Details
Adventure Travel Trade Association
