Mass tourism will make a roaring comeback by summer, Expedia CEO

Things are looking good for Expedia Group – well, relatively, anyway.

Its third-quarter earnings report shows a company that’s still pulling in $1.5 billion in quarterly revenue, exceeding mid-pandemic expectations, even if that it represents $221 million in losses. CEO Peter Kern would rather look forward. Even in comparison to other bullish industry leaders, Kern is steadfast in his conviction that travel’s recovery isn’t just on the horizon but around the corner. And it won’t be just on forested hiking trails and scenic byways but in big, dense, boarded-up cities, too.

Kern firmly holds that news of an impending vaccine – rather than the vaccine itself – is what will jump-start travel again. “People will think, ‘Well, by the summer Europe might be open, or I might have the vaccine, so let’s book it,’” he explains.


A shift in consumer confidence doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s been steadily rising, Kern says.

“Barring the vaccine, my sense is that people were getting increasingly comfortable with how safe air travel and hotels are – the precautions that the industry has been taking – and the numbers (of bookings) have been creeping up (as a result),” he says. “Of course, it helps if everybody does their part (to keep the virus in check).”

The latter half of that thought is crucial: Trusting in airline and hotel protocols matters only when people are physically able to travel. With a second wave forcing lockdowns in much of Europe, consumer confidence may well be a moot point.

Kern sees his decent-enough summer sales as proof that there is pent-up demand and reason to be hopeful that business can swell quickly again. “It’s all terrible—but it’s way less terrible than one might have imagined,” he concedes.