Americans have become more cost-conscious in this inflationary economy, but that doesn't seem to stop them from taking their vacations. Neither are the widespread delays travelers encounter at the airport. Brett Keller, CEO of Priceline, joined TheStreet to give his take on why travel is holding up so well.
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Full transcript of the video below:
CONWAY GITTENS: Are you seeing any changes in consumer travel behavior due to inflation?
By Brett Keller: Well, inflation has been with us for a few years now and what we're seeing is that travel, in particular, is holding up pretty well compared to other categories. Consumers still prefer travel over durable goods and even staples to some extent because people love to travel, they want to get out and it's a way to relax and take a vacation and enjoy themselves. What we're seeing, obviously, is that in the hotel sector prices have skyrocketed over the last couple of years and for the first time, we're starting to see hotel prices level off and even start to come down a little bit. So inflation has had a hard impact on the hotel industry, but now I think it's starting to ease off a little bit. So the question will be what happens as we go through the rest of the summer and the rest of the year. Will prices start to rise again in those areas?
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CONWAY GITTENS: Speaking of harsh consequences, Brett, air travel has been a disaster for the past few years. You know, the industry has been dealing with staff shortages and widespread delays and cancellations. Are these travel disruptions getting to the point where they're affecting travelers' decisions for the summer?
By Brett Keller: Based on demand trends, I would say no, they are not stopping them from getting on planes and flying, which is where most of the disruption is really happening. Again, air traffic is up 6% or 7% year over year. And as we get closer to the holidays and peak periods, it will be higher. What is happening, though, is there is better staffing, right? The TSA has more staff. The airlines have put more equipment in the air. And that has allowed them to deal with some of the backlog that occurs when you have a bad weather incident or an equipment malfunction. So the airlines, from an operational perspective, are doing better. If you compare this to two years ago, when it was really a very tough summer for consumers, I think we're going to be in a much better situation this year than we were last year. So there will be fewer cancellations and fewer delays, but more flights in the air. So it will feel more crowded as you move through the airports.
