A total of 1,080* deals were announced in the global travel and tourism sector during 2021, which is an improvement of 1.3% over the 1,066 deals announced during 2020, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Deal activity in the travel and tourism sector consistently improved month-on-month during the latter half of 2021— though December suffered a setback that could be attributed to the rising number of Omicron cases. Nevertheless, there was a year-on-year improvement globally.”

Deal activity improved in key markets such as the US, Australia, France, Spain, Canada and the Netherlands during 2021, while markets such as the UK, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Italy saw a decline in deal activity.

The number of announced private equity deals increased by 22% during 2021, while the number of venture financing and mergers & acquisitions (M&A) deals decreased by 3.3% and 0.5%, respectively.

* Comprising M&A, private equity, and venture financing