SiteMinder: June marks six months of growth in hotel bookings globally

Reservation volumes globally have now risen to more than 65% of 2019 levels, well above the 40% seen at this same time last year, according to SiteMinder’s World Hotel Index.

The Americas
In the Americas, both Mexico and Canada are displaying strong momentum.

For Canada, where the seven-day average of new COVID cases is at its lowest point since late September, booking momentum has accelerated from 22% at the start of May to 62% currently. For those seeking to move between the U.S. and Canada, there’s hope that the border will open in time for Canada’s July 1 national holiday and the July 4 weekend in the U.S.

In Mexico, which leads the Americas in booking momentum, reservations to the Mexican Caribbean continue to skyrocket, with reports of many hotels at capacity in the region. In Playa Del Carmen, the number of bookings being made are currently at more than double 2019 volumes, and an average of 65% of stays for June and July are from international guests.

Europe
Across Europe, the summer period remains a key driver of current momentum. Bookings to 16 of the 17 European countries in the World Hotel Index increased over the last 30 days (compared to just 67% of all countries in the Index), and for French and German hotels, the results of the past month were particularly strong.

In France, booking volumes jumped to 59% of 2019 levels, up from 44% last month, as international travel became a growing part of the country’s recovery story. Open to vaccinated tourists from most countries, including the U.S., as of last week, the percentage of bookings made by foreign tourists to French hotels so far in June is the highest it’s been in 10 months, at 29%.

In Germany, with rates of coronavirus infections dropping, and confidence growing across the country, booking momentum also jumped, from 20% of its 2019 level to almost 60%. There, too, international arrivals are set to grow, as the country plans for its July 1 reopening.

Asia-Pacific
Finally, looking to the Asia-Pacific region, bookings to the Maldives and the Cook Islands remain well above 2019 volumes, led almost completely by foreign travelers, and international bookings to New Zealand also remain strong, as many Australians take the opportunity to jump across the ditch for some time in New Zealand’s ski fields. Attention will also be put on Thailand in the coming weeks, with the “Phuket Sandbox” initiative, designed to allow quarantine-free travel for vaccinated tourists, aiming to launch on July 1.