Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused many people to rethink their travel plans, but some of the top industry executives are still expecting one of the best summer seasons ever after more than two years of pent-up demand.
“This is a terrible tragic local event,” Booking Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Glenn Fogel said at a Bank of America conference on Tuesday. But Fogel said that despite Americans likely feeling “angry and sad” about the war, he doesn’t believe they are going to change their travel plans. Even with the potential for higher airfare due to spiking jet fuel prices, Fogel said a “significant amount of travel that did not happen over the last two years has built up this incredible amount of demand, and this latent demand just wanted to burst out and travel.”
Booking, which gets about 90% of its revenue from international markets, said in a securities filing on Tuesday that room nights booked declined by roughly 10% against 2019 levels for the week ended March 6. Much of that was driven by Russia and Eastern Europe, while Western Europe “remains modestly above 2019 levels,” the company said.
