Text size
The online travel agencies expect strong summers, but will that be the case?
Dreamstime
There could be trouble brewing for the online-travel-agency stocks, with early signs that macroeconomic factors could blunt a nascent recovery in U.S. leisure travel.
In reporting March quarter results,
Expedia
Group (ticker: EXPE),
Booking Holdings
(BKNG), and
Airbnb
(ABNB) all said that they expect a strong summer travel season. But gasoline prices have spiked almost 20% since the three companies reported results in the first week in May, government data show, interest rates remain high and recession fears are growing. In short, there are signs that the postpandemic travel boom could be in trouble.
BTIG analyst Jake Fuller reports in a research note Friday that he’s seeing worrisome data points on the outlook for the online travel sector. In particular, he notes that traffic to Expedia, Booking, and Airbnb websites have slowed considerably