According to Monthly Travel Data Report by US Travel Association, in June 2021, travel spending tallied $87.6 billion.

It reflected a drop of ‘only’ 15% below June 2019 levels, significantly improving from earlier months.

While this data is encouraging for our industry, the recent surge due to the highly transmissible delta variant has negatively impacted upcoming travel plans for many globally. Due to the surge in COVID cases/ hospitalizations, the Airlines will be asked to extend the mask mandate in airplanes until the end of 2021.

While we were hoping to come out of the pandemic by the end of this summer, the setback certainly negatively affects our industry members and fellow Skålleagues. We must continue to stand together, check on each other, and do business amongst each other in every opportunity to support one another and come out of this pandemic stronger as the members of the largest global association within the travel and tourism industry with 12,800 members. 

This month in the newsletter, the theme is the 'Comeback of Trade Shows'. Most of the critical global tradeshows are starting this fall; look at the upcoming global events in the travel industry.  In this month’s newsletter, you will also find great articles prepared by fellow Skalleagues from Australia and South Africa on Industry Updates and Digital Trends that you need to keep up with for your business, especially as we are coming out of the Pandemic despite the setbacks with variants. We continue to go through the history of Skål Internationasl at our Skål in History Section. Thank you all for continuing to be a member of Skål International. Your friendship and commitment are highly appreciated!

As always, for any questions, feedback, please feel free to contact me at any time.