GlobalData, a data and analytics company, reports that 365 deals—including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture financing deals—were announced in the travel and tourism sector globally during the first half (H1) of 2023, a decline of 38.8% from the 596 deals announced during the same period in the previous year.
All the deal categories covered by GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database experienced a fall in deal activity, according to a review of the database. When comparing H1 2023 to H1 2022, the number of merger and acquisition (M&A), private equity, and venture finance agreements decreased by 41.6%, 33.3%, and 30.4%, respectively.
According to Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, “the travel and tourism sector is seeing distressed transaction activity in several worldwide markets. Rising interest rates, the impending threat of a recession, and the current geopolitical tensions are just a few of the variables influencing deal activity.
The region of Europe accounted for the largest portion of the transactions announced internationally in the travel and tourism industry, followed by Asia-Pacific, North America, the Middle East and Africa, South and Central America, and then North America.
While deal volume declined 46% YoY in Europe, it declined by 19%, 47.6%, 20%, and 23.1%, respectively, in the Asia-Pacific, North America, Middle East, and Africa, South, and Central America areas during H1 2023 compared to H1 2022.
In comparison to H1 2022, several important markets saw a downturn in deal activity connected to the travel and tourist sector in the first half of 2023. For instance, during H1 2023 compared to H1 2022, deal volume decreased in the US, UK, India, Australia, France, South Korea, Japan, and Spain, respectively, by 47.7%, 44.8%, 21.4%, 21.1%, 33.3%, 20%, 62.1%, and 69.2%.
The announcement of deals for the travel and tourist sector increased by 18.2% in China during H1 2023 compared to H1 2022, becoming a major outlier to the downward trend.
Source- Travel biz