With revenue of more than $4.3 billion in the second quarter of 2022 - double the corresponding quarter in 2021 - Booking.com is starting to talk recovery. Net profit climbed to $857 million, compared with a loss of $167 million in the corresponding quarter last year, while the number of overnights booked through the global giant in the second quarter jumped by 56% to 246 million overnights, compared with 198 million overnights in the first quarter of the year. "All this is happening without the Asian market reopening to tourism," says Glenn Fogel CEO and president of Booking Holdings, in an interview with Globes.

Global demand for vacations and travel has led to major congestion at airports and flight cancellations - but it has benefitted online travel agent Booking, whose position is only getting stronger. In fact, the numbers make it look like 2022 may be Booking's peak year, but Fogel advises caution. "We’re still before the fourth quarter, and we’ve already seen how things change overnight.

"In November last year, we were still issuing profit warnings, but in February things started to improve, and bookings shot up. The night Russia invaded Ukraine we saw fluctuations once more. We’ve learned to live with uncertainty, so I can't say definitively this will be our record year."

Can we already talk about a full recovery for the industry?

"The numbers certainly make us happy: the number of overnight stays booked in the second quarter of this year compared to 2019 grew by 16%. This quarter also indicates a significant improvement compared to the pre-pandemic period. Reservations reached $45 billion, a growth of 38% compared with the corresponding quarter in 2019.

Read the full article at globes.co.il