The frequency of travel mergers and acquisitions in the tourism sector is declining. In the first ten months of this year, there were 583 recorded transactions, including mergers, acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing. This marks a significant drop of 10% compared to the 651 transactions announced during the same period in 2023, according to GlobalData, a leading international data and analytics company.
Experts highlight that geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties have greatly affected deal-making in the travel and tourism sector. However, some major economies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region have experienced increased deal volumes.
In the first ten months of 2024, Europe led the travel mergers and acquisitions (M&A) rankings in terms of both the number of announcements and deals, demonstrating a 7.5% increase in deal activity compared to the previous year.
In contrast, transaction volumes declined year-on-year in several regions: North America saw a decrease of 33%. Asia-Pacific decreased by 6.4%, South and Central America declined by 20%. The Middle East and Africa significantly dropped 17.2% from January to October 2024.
The countries that performed the worst included the United States, China, South Korea, and France, which experienced significant declines in deal volume of 32.2%, 30.2%, 4.8%, and 34.8%, respectively, during the same period compared to 2023.
On the other hand, several countries reported a year-on-year improvement in transaction volume, including the United Kingdom (+2.7%), India (+18.6%), Japan (+28.6%), and Spain (+69.2%).
An analysis of the deal database revealed that trends in deal types remained mixed. From January to October 2024, merger and acquisition deal volumes decreased by 4.9%, while venture financing deal volumes fell significantly by 29.4% compared to the same period in 2023.
In contrast, private equity deal volumes experienced a slight improvement during this timeframe.
