The global travel and tourism industry experienced a notable decline in deal activity during January-August 2023, marking a substantial year-on-year (YoY) decrease of 36.2% compared to the same period in 2022. This decline spanned various deal types, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing, with economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions playing a significant role in shaping this trend, finds GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that a total of 482 deals were announced in the global travel and tourism industry compared to 756 deals announced during January-August 2023. The volume of M&A deals declined by 37.8% while the number of private equity and venture financing deals declined by 38.1% and 30.8% YoY, respectively.
Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Economic uncertainties including interest rates hikes, rising inflation, looming recession fears coupled with geopolitical tensions seem to have made investors cautious, which led to the significant decline in T&T deal activity across many countries.”
In fact, several key markets witnessed double-digit decline in deals volume during January-August 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. For instance, the US, the UK, Australia, France, Japan, the Netherlands, and Canada witnessed deals volume decline by 47.2%, 45.3%,20.8%, 13.6%, 62.5%, 31.3% and 33.3% YoY, respectively, during January-August 2023.
India and China too registered 6.3% and 3.3% decline in deals volume during January-August 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
Bose concludes: “Despite the challenges, its ability to adapt and recover has been a hallmark of the travel and tourism industry, and this resilience is likely to drive a resurgence in deal activity when the global landscape stabilizes.”
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