Travel companies are reporting surging demand for leisure travel and rocketing sales figures; the Australian passport office is almost overwhelmed and world tourism is understood to have picked up dramatically over the past couple of months.
Waiting times for Australian passports have blown out, with reports of people queuing for hours at passport offices or calling endlessly to check for updates on their urgent documents.
Guardian Australia quoted a man who said he had phoned the Australian Passport Office 46 times over a six-day period (and had got through three times).
A spokesperson for the passport office told the publication it was currently receiving between 10,000 to 12,000 applications a day, up from 7000 to 9000.
Vienna last month
Meanwhile, TravelManagers Australia has disclosed its May 2022 sales figures reached 92% of the same period in 2019.
TravelManagers Australia chief operating officer, Grant Campbell, said the figures revealed an even more optimistic picture at an individual level, with average sales per personal travel manager (PTM) in May at their highest ever.
“What’s more, the average income per PTM – based on commissions and service fees – in May is also at an all-time high,” Campbell added.
Melanie Whyte, TravelManagers’ representative for Devonport, Tasmania added jubilantly: “Whew, what just happened? I think May was the busiest I have had in 22 years in the job! 38 people to Europe, thirteen to the USA, four to the Pacific islands, one to Asia and countless people around Australia: it makes my heart happy!”
See: Personal travel manager reports busiest-ever May
On another front, Acacia Africa has reported “a huge increase in inquiries and bookings” for its small-group safari programs in Southern Africa – so much so that it has scheduled weekly departures for many of its small group safari tours and guaranteed dates for the coming four to six months.
The same seems to be happening in Australia – international travel to and from Queensland has doubled in two months – and a similar surge may be happening around the world. Earlier this year, the World Tourism Organisation reported an uneven recovery for the sector in January, with tourist arrivals still 67% below 2019 levels.
Figures for the first quarter, due out shortly, have easily outstripped the January levels. They are understood to indicate a rapid recovery – a trend which, anecdotally, has continued to accelerate over the past two months.
Below: Travel’s revival begins. It’s climbing fast, but with some way to go. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics graph shows evidence of current recovery in arrivals and departures after the catastrophic Covid-related dive of 2020. For interactive chart, see here.
According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, released today, international tourism saw a 182% year-on-year increase in January-March 2022, with destinations worldwide welcoming an estimated 117 million international arrivals compared to 41 million in the first quarter of 2021. Of the extra 76 million international arrivals for the first three months, about 47 million were recorded in March, showing that the recovery is gathering pace.
Written by Peter Needham
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