Amadeus Asia travel bookings surpass 2002 levels

Amadeus Asia has announced that for the first time since the outbreak of the Iraq War and the SARS scare, bookings by travellers for airline tickets, hotels and other travel products through its bookings system have surpassed 2002 levels.

Mr. David Brett, President of Amadeus Asia Ltd., said: "Since late June we began to see daily net bookings from the 32 Asia Pacific countries and territories in which Amadeus operates begin to equal what they were in the same period last year. However, in the first few days of July we have seen a clear surge with daily net bookings reaching around 180,000, as compared to 120,000 in the same period last year, and a low of around 30,000 at the height of the SARS scare, in mid-April this year.".

He said that cancellation rates for travel bookings had also declined sharply from a high of 82% in April 2003, to 66% in June 2003. "These cancellation rates are even lower than the 68% cancellation rate that we recorded in June 2002," said Mr. Brett.

Mr. Brett added, "The strong recovery in net bookings has only happened in the last week. I suspect that the strong promotional efforts in the travel industry, such as Thai Airways International's 'Luck is in the Air' campaign, and the removal of the last country, Taiwan, from the list of SARS-infected territories has done a lot to boost confidence among travellers."

"SARS has undoubtedly had a more dramatic and devastating effect on travel patterns in the region than any other incident in the last ten years. However the way in which travel is bouncing back shows the resilience of the travel industry and its importance as a key element of sustained economic growth", he said.