The Coronavirus Effect: Latest Trends And How To Respond

The growing international coronavirus health crisis is dramatically affecting consumer travel around the world, and global travel brands are feeling the impact most directly. As travel cancellations mount and travel to certain regions becomes more severely affected, travel brands should monitor the situation and smartly adjust their marketing spends to maximize their effectiveness during this unique event.

In light of the outbreak, we've seen the cancellation of large events, including ITB Berlin and SXSW in Austin, as well as other major conferences, like Skift Europe, pushing to later in the year. Due to these cancellations and shifts, bookings and revenue are down in select destinations. However, in most of the regions affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we're seeing disruption proportionate to the severity of the outbreaks. Here at Koddi, we've been monitoring the situation closely, as it affects our many travel partners. Based on what we've seen, here are our insights and recommendations as to how travel brands should be thinking about their spending patterns in light of the ever-evolving coronavirus situation.

In APAC

Across key APAC countries that are severely impacted by COVID-19, including China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, we are seeing metasearch opportunities and traffic decline by 50-80 percent year-over-year, with low conversion rates and very high cancellation rates. Other APAC markets are also seeing declines between 30-50 percent.