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IN BRIEF
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The shock of COVID-19 jolted tourism before catalyzing a powerful rebound, driven by revenge travel. Five years later, three main lines of force shape a transformed but recognizable landscape: persistent inflation, especially in aviation, accelerated digitalization fueled by artificial intelligence, and a sustainability reaffirmed in discourse but hindered by purchasing power. Amid budgetary caution, innovations, and trade-offs, the ecosystem is organized around new booking habits, a more technology-assisted client relationship, and environmental challenges that impose themselves on actors rather than being driven by demand.
After the lockdowns, the thirst for escape took over, giving rise to a phase of impulsive purchases, longer stays, and an elevated willingness to pay. At the same time, many companies streamlined their organizations, improving their productivity and consolidating their positions through mergers and acquisitions. To understand this new balance, one must read together the price effect, the reallocation of capacities, the push of digital, and the maturation of AI tools that reconfigure distribution and service.
A shock followed by a rebound: the rise of “revenge travel”
The fear of a total stop was succeeded by a spring of desire to depart, sometimes “at any cost.” This rebound surprised with its vigor, marked by massive bookings and rising baskets. Behind the scenes, players adjusted their costs, automated tasks, and tightened their supplier portfolios, regaining maneuverability and often achieving margins.
The main networks continued their forward march, accelerating their commercial development and market coverage. This concentration has strengthened negotiating power, supporting recovery while preparing the ground for the next phase, which is more constraining: household budget arbitrations.
Purchasing power under pressure and the end of the cycle
The wave of revenge travel was not a permanent regime. As prices rose, purchasing power reasserted itself: more cautious households, shorter stays, shifts towards cheaper destinations, and withdrawal of some travelers from international travel. Since spring, demand has slowed in both agency networks and direct bookings, forcing tour operators and airlines to resort again to promotions to smooth out occupancy rates.
Aviation inflation, limited capacities, and new rules of the game
The increase in tariffs in commercial aviation is rooted in a combination of causes: rebuilding margins after the crisis, reconfiguration of certain routes, geopolitical constraints, and above all, a capacity shortage. The global fleet is still missing several thousand aircraft, which makes seats scarce and supports prices, particularly in short and medium-haul. The index of prices departing from France remains significantly above its level at the end of the 2010s.
Airlines juggle between yield management, delivery delays, and fleet arbitrations. Some, better served on their order books, have maintained a good deployment pace; others compensate with precise capacity management. As a result: when demand falters, discounts reappear, indicating that the psychological ceiling for travelers has been reached on several key destinations.
Accelerated digitalization and new usages
The post-pandemic period has triggered a massive catch-up in digitalization on the supply side. Management tools, API connections, back-office automation: the value chainhas thickened and smoothed out, forcing hoteliers and historically technophobic providers to embrace connected solutions. This dynamic has boosted productivity and operational responsiveness, from pricing to distribution.
For physical points of sale, the effect has not meant a mechanical decline. The need for reassurance after complicated refund experiences has renewed interest in human assistance, particularly on complex cases. However, a generational gap persists: younger travelers often still associate the agency with a less agile and more expensive channel, favoring platforms like Booking or Airbnb.
This shift in usage is also reflected in the ecosystem’s news, with the rising power of travel and tourism startups reinventing the customer journey, and territories celebrating their expertise, as illustrated by this spotlight on tourism and heritage. Even in the heart of the season, activity signals—such as a summer described as flourishing by some players—testify to a rapid adaptation to new digital reflexes.
Buy now, pay later and reassurance
Faced with inflation, buy now, pay later solutions have emerged as a buffer, sometimes dominant in certain segments. Combined with more transparent insurance policies and enriched service pathways (live chat, case tracking, proactive notifications), they extend the reassurance effect sought since the crisis.
Artificial intelligence: promises, use cases, and limits
Generative AI and its sectoral variations are true “game changers.” The most tangible applications concentrate on itinerary generation, automated writing of descriptions, translation, 24/7 conversational assistance, content classification, sentiment analysis, and demand forecasting. On the revenue side, micro-segmentation and dynamic pricing are refining, while operations gain speed through automation of repetitive tasks.
Can an travel agent be replaced by AI? For simple cases, automated orchestration becomes credible. However, the role of the agency—arbitration, responsibility, bespoke preparations, managing uncertainties—retains its value. The key is the cultural adaptation of teams and the reasoned integration of models at the core of systems. At the destination level, this shift also feeds into new mediation and advisory practices, driven by more agile offices, as illustrated by the experiences relayed by the Libournais Tourism Office.
Sustainability: ambitions on hold, imperatives imposing themselves
Sustainable tourism gained notoriety during the crisis, but economic translation remains timid: few customers are willing to pay significantly more for a “green” offer. In this context, the initiative falls to industry players and destinations: decarbonization of transport, energy efficiency, better flow distribution, measuring footprints, and verified compensation.
The anti-tourism discourse, sometimes caricatural, weighs on the attractiveness of professions and recruitment capacity. Hence the need to valorize the positive social impact of the sector, its transformation efforts, and local initiatives. The protection of biodiversity and the fight against over-tourism are becoming structuring, as illustrated by this dedicated analysis of the intersecting challenges between biodiversity and tourism, while the narrative around territories supports the pride of welcoming and the engagement of communities, as seen in the actions of heritage celebration.
Biodiversity and heritage, the compass of regenerative tourism
Reconciling experience and preservation involves finely engineered flow management (time slots, quotas, accessible/regulatory pricing), off-season diversification, and promoting modal alternatives (rail, micro-mobility). Highlighting short supply chains, heritage, and craftsmanship strengthens local consent, while more sober narratives—“less far, longer”—spread. Monitoring biodiversity and feedback from pioneering destinations foster a pragmatic transition, supported by inspiring initiatives cataloged in these resources on a very dynamic tourist summer or the innovative solutions of startups.
What priorities for tourism actors?
Three axes are essential. First, a stringent management of value: pricing discipline, capacity calibration, product design for constrained budgets (mix of hybrids and modular options). Second, the industrialization of data and AI to enhance satisfaction, conversion, and quality, with targeted and measurable investments. Finally, a sustainable approach oriented towards evidence: public indicators, credible low-carbon trajectories, HR policies that provide meaning and attract talent.
The alliance of “phygital”—human expertise augmented by technology—will be the competitive advantage of the coming years. Destinations that orchestrate ecology, hospitality, and innovation, like the engaged offices and territories such as Libournais, and ecosystems that promote the emergence of tourism startups, will stand out in a world where AI, digitalization, and prices are reshaping the landscape of travel.
