Latin America’s online travel sales, which plunged to $ 9 billion in 2020, are expected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels of $ 22 billion by 2022, according to a recent Statista study.

Online travel sellers were one of the mainstays of the travel industry and they have suffered from the pandemic, but the study suggests they may be rebounding.

In a 2020 survey conducted for the study, booking sites were found to be the most popular options for searching for travel and tourism services among residents of major Latin American countries for that year.

“People in Latin America are very digital, especially in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, so the study doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Fernão Loureiro, who runs a travel consulting firm in Sāo Paulo. , in Brazil. “In this context, OTAs (online travel agencies) invest a high budget in both social media and newspaper advertisements, commercials breaks and football matches. “

Although online travel agencies were predominant in Latin America, their main uses varied by country. For example, in Brazil, booking sites were mainly used to book flights while they were used to book accommodation mainly in Mexico. In Argentina, online travel sites came first as the preferred channel for booking both flights and accommodation.

“It’s an unstoppable trend in every way, so OTAs will definitely be riding a very positive wave for years to come as people become more and more digital and develop a taste for travel as one of the most popular things. desired life. Said Loureiro.

While Mexico held the highest online travel market share at 46%, Brazil took 31%, according to the study. However, Brazil led the online travel startup market with 82 in 2020 and Mexico came in second with 43 online travel startups.

The study also found that Despegar.com, a company founded in Argentina, has successfully established itself as the leading online travel agency in Latin America, where it controls up to 10% of the market share. The second agency, CVC.com.br, controls around 6.7% of the market share.

Worth $ 22 billion in 2020, the Latin American travel market is expected to reach $ 83 billion by 2024 at best. In the worst case, growth is expected to be $ 56 billion.

You can find the study here.

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