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Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at Carnival’s best earnings, Hong Kong’s high cost for business travelers and Traveloka’s cash infusion.
Rashad Jordan
Good morning from Skift. It’s Monday, October 3rd. Here’s what you need to know about the travel business today.
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Episode Notes
Corporate travel agencies have been booking trips to Hong Kong in large numbers since it recently lifted the mandatory hotel quarantine. These companies are also seeing the cost of business travel to Hong Kong continue to rise, reports Corporate Travel Editor Matthew Parsons.
While airfares fell in most markets in 2020 and 2021, Parsons wrote corporate travel agency CWT saw the opposite happen in Hong Kong as well as Singapore. Akshay Kapoor, CWT’s head of Asia-Pacific sales, said the agency does not believe the factors driving the rise in flight prices and hotel prices will disappear in the near future. Air fares in Hong Kong are expected to grow 24 percent this year and 4 percent in 2023.
Meanwhile, Parsons adds that rising business travel costs should prompt companies already preparing for China to ease travel restrictions significantly. Kapoor predicts that demand for corporate travel to China will increase significantly after the country lifts quarantine requirements for international travelers.
Carnival Corporation then reported an increase in third-quarter bookings during its earnings call on Friday, which the cruise line attributed to easing its Covid protocols, writes Global Tourism Journalist Dawit Habtemariam.
Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein said the company recorded more bookings in the third quarter than during the same period in 2019. The cruise line also saw its onboard revenue rise significantly from pre-pandemic levels. Carnival announced in August that vaccinated passengers did not have to test negative to board while unvaccinated passengers would be allowed to board with a negative Covid test.
But despite an 80 percent increase in revenue from the second quarter, Carnival lost nearly $700 million during the third quarter.
Finally, Traveloka, Indonesia’s leading travel agency, has received a major boost in its push to create more digital products. The company has secured $300 million worth of new funding, reports Asia editor Peden Doma Bhutia.
The Investment Authority of Indonesia – as well as global financial institutions such as BlackRock and Allianz Global Investors – led the funding round. Traveloka had sought to raise over $200 million, having previously raised $1.2 billion in six rounds of funding. Online travel agencies in Indonesia are expected to see their share of tourism bookings in the country increase, Bhutia writes.
Traveloka’s Chief Marketing Officer, Shirley Lesmana, said while speaking recently at the Skift Global Forum in New York that the pandemic accelerated the need for it to create more digital products. She added that Traveloka has been working to improve its payment infrastructure.
