Package bookings have grown by more than a quarter (27%) year-on-year during the first quarter of the year (three months to 31 March), with average package transaction values during the first three months of the year up 7% year-on-year.
Total package transactions, meanwhile, have increased by 40% since 2020. Overall consumer spend on flights and holidays has increased by 27% during the first quarter, and is now up by 40% compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Digital advertising platform Cardlytics analysed spend across more than 24 million UK bank accounts, with its data broadly illustrating a strong post-Covid rebound for travel. It comes after new data from Barclays this week highlighted how spend on travel was rebounding faster than all other areas of non-essential spend.
However, the Q1 data also appears to show some efforts by consumers to rein in their spending amid cost of living and inflationary pressures, with the number of travellers redeeming discounts and offers through their bank accounts for travel purchases up by 79% year-on-year.
And while overall consumer spend is rising, average transaction values have grown at a slower rate than inflation, and there has also been a swing towards more budget options.
Spend with low-cost airlines, for instance, increased faster than the rate for the rest of the industry during Q1 (42%) compared with a 29% increase for other airlines.
Another trend observed by Cardlytics was a shift away from purchases made through comparison sites, which the firm said fell by 12% in 2022. It added that while aggregators did see a slight recovery during Q1, transactions remain 2% down compared with pre-pandemic figures.
Its analysis also suggests spend on domestic holidays and "staycations" may have peaked in 2022; there were just shy of 700,000 transactions across this sector during the first three months of 2022, but this fell by 23% during Q1 2023. At the same time, international package holiday transactions grew by 27% over the same period.
“The travel industry will be buoyed by strong consumer spend in the first quarter of 2023 following a turbulent few years of lockdowns, cancellations and delays," said Cardlytics vice-president of sales, Mike Glegg.
"It’s encouraging to see increased confidence in bookings despite tighter budgets and rising prices, but aggregators will now be looking to capitalise on this and win-back trust from their customer base after last summer’s disruption."
