A total of 715 deals comprising mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals were announced in the travel and tourism sector globally during 2024, which represented a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 4.3% compared to 747 deals announced during the previous year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Deal activity in the travel and tourism sector remained a mixed bag across different deal types and geographies. While private equity deals showcased improvement and M&A deals volume remained mostly at the same level, venture financing deals saw a double-digit decline. Now coming to regions, Europe showcased growth in deal volume while North America, the Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America registered double-digit declines, and deal volume for the Asia-Pacific region mostly remained at the same level.”

An analysis of GlobalData's Deals Database revealed that the number of private equity deals increased by 26.1% in 2024 compared to 2023, and M&A deals volume registered a marginal 0.4% growth, whereas the number of venture financing deals was down by 22.3%.

Europe saw a 17% improvement in deal volume during 2024 compared to 2023, whereas North America, the Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America witnessed deal volume falling by 26.7%, 27.8%, and 13.3%, respectively, during the year. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific region’s deal volume fell marginally by 1.7%.

Bose adds: “The trend across different key markets was also no different and remained a mixed bag, with some countries registering double-digit growth and some registering double-digit declines.”

For instance, the UK, India, and Japan witnessed improvement in deal volume by 10.8%, 36%, and 45.7%, respectively, during 2024 compared to 2023, whereas the US, China, and France witnessed respective deal volume decline by 25.9%, 29.8% and 26.9%. Meanwhile, deal volume for markets such as South Korea and Australia remained unchanged.