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After months of decline, GDP estimates for many countries have turned positive: the consensus forecast for world GDP growth in 2021 is 6.1%

Polls show that technology will change job prospects over the next three years, with AI expected to bring a change to job prospects

China’s real GDP is forecasted to expand by 2.3% over the previous quarter in Q3 2021

The unemployment rate in OECD nations stood at 6.4% in June 2021, down from 6.5% in May 2021

Impact on airlines

In June, IATA announced a slight improvement in demand for air travel in June 2021.

Revenue passenger kilometres were down 60.1% in June, an improvement on the decline experienced in May (-62.9% v 2019). The rollout of the vaccine is beginning to underpin the return of air travel, especially domestic.

International travel continues to lag behind due to government-imposed travel restrictions. Airlines are therefore planning for an extended recovery period.

IMPACT ON INTERMEDIARIES

Many intermediaries are now focusing on experiences as a primary focus with partnerships becoming more common.

Recent partnerships include Trivago's (Expedia Group) partnership with Musement, TUI's experiential subsidiary, and Booking.com's attraction partnership with Viator (Tripadvisor).

As travel remains restricted, intermediaries are exploring tours and activities as another revenue stream.

KEY TRAVEL AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENTS