A total of 558 deals* were announced in the travel and tourism sector globally during the first three quarters of 2023, which was a decline of 33% compared to the announcement of 833 deals during the same period in 2022, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database also revealed all the deal types under coverage, and most of the key markets recorded a considerable year-on-year decline in the announcement of deals during Q1-Q3 2023 compared to Q1-Q3 2022.

For instance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals volume for the travel and tourism sector declined by 34.6% during Q1-Q3 2023 compared to Q1-Q3 2022, while the total number of private equity deals and venture financing deals were down by 29.2% and 28.4%, respectively.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Geo-political tensions, Russia-Ukraine war, inflation, recession fears, and interest rate hikes seem to have been taking a toll on deal-making sentiments in the travel and tourism sector. Resultantly, we have been seeing subdued activity being experienced across several key markets across regions.”

North America witnessed a decline in deals volume by 43.9% during Q1-Q3 2023 compared to the same period in the previous year, while Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America regions experienced decline of 39.7%, 12.7%, 16.7%, and 25%, respectively.

Similarly, key markets such as the US, the UK, South Korea, France, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, and Canada recorded year-on-year decline in deals volume by 44.4%, 40%, 12.5%, 12.5%, 25.9%, 53.5%, 23.5%, and 35.3% during Q1-Q3 2023,  respectively, compared to Q1-Q3 2022.

Meanwhile, China emerged as a notable exception and experienced growth in deals volume by 21.9% during Q1-Q3 2023 compared to Q1-Q3 2022, whereas deals volume for India remained at the same level.

*Comprising mergers & acquisitions, private equity, and venture financing deals

(Note: Historic data may change in case some deals get added to previous months because of a delay in disclosure of information in the public domain)