Travel trends during the COVID-19 pandemic: a view of online travel agencies

It is widely recognized that the tourism and travel industry was among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in this context, the tourism sector has proven its strength to recover and adapt to the new tourist perceptions and behaviours, which have led to changes in travel patterns, resulting new travel trends. There is concern in the scientific literature for the topic of travel trends in terms of identifying them and finding solutions for tourism recovery. The research methodology of this paper is based on content analysis and the main purpose is to answer the question, what are the travel trends during the COVID-19 pandemic? The results of the research are derived from the perspective of the world’s leading online travel agencies. In this study, several travel trends were identified during the COVID-19 pandemic, the main ones being domestic travel, tourists’ preference for bookings with flexible cancellation terms, buying holidays shortly before the departure date, choosing destinations and locations where safety and health measures are valued, opting for shorter trips and moving towards more sustainable tourism. The authors consider that the contribution of this study in the field of tourism is represented by the actuality of the topic analysed.