Are These The Best Travel Stocks To Buy Right Now?
With the impact of the pandemic fading, travel stocks appear to be attracting attention in the stock market. After all, the United States eased its travel restrictions for international travellers last month, with vaccinated travellers now being allowed into the country. Although the Omicron variant is raising concerns, the White House’s chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that early reports on the variant were encouraging. And President Joe Biden said last week that there would be no new travel restrictions in light of the new variant’s discovery.
This is all encouraging for travel stocks. For instance, airline stocks like Boeing (NYSE: BA) may be seeing renewed interest from investors. Earlier this month, Chinese authorities issued an airworthiness directive on the Boeing 737 MAX. The directive means that the model is finally returning to Chinese airspace after about 2.5 years. Elsewhere, travel booking platform Expedia Group’s (NASDAQ: EXPE) stock has risen by more than 25% this year as travel restriction eases. As the world continues to open up, would you be keeping an eye on these top travel stocks in the stock market today?
Best Travel Stocks To Watch In December 2021
- Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG)
- Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL)
- Marriott International (NASDAQ: MAR)
- American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL)
- Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB)
Booking Holdings
Booking Holdings owns travel booking platforms Booking.com, Priceline.com and Agoda.com. Despite the ongoing pandemic, the company is on a roll. An acquisition roll, that is. In November, Booking bought Getaroom for $1.2 billion in a bid to expand on partnerships. Next, the company entered into an agreement with funds managed by CVC Capital Partners to acquire Etraveli Group. The acquisition of the global flight booking provider will cost Booking about $1.83 billion. Could the acquisitions make BKNG stock more attractive to investors?
But there is more. Last week, Booking’s subsidiary Kayak became the lead investor in a $60 million backing of hospitality company Life House. Besides, its third fiscal quarter revenue did not look too shabby either. The company posted a $4.7 billion in total revenue for the latest quarter, an increase of 77% year-over-year. With its expansion within the industry, would you be adding BKNG stock to your portfolio?
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Royal Caribbean
It was not smooth sailing for the Royal Caribbean Group and other cruise companies during the pandemic. At the height of the pandemic, the entire cruising industry was shut down as many feared transmissions within confined spaces. Yet the second-largest cruise company in the world has managed to weather the storm. Last week, the company celebrated the one-year anniversary since the resumption of its operations after the pandemic-related pause.
Royal Caribbean in its latest quarter results said that over 500,000 guests have sailed with the company since the resumption. And it is expecting to host over 1 million guests by the end of 2021. Moreover, its CEO Richard Fain said that the company has received historically strong bookings for summer 2022. With news that the Omicron variant might not be as severe as first thought, could RCL stock be a viable travel stock for your watchlist?
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Marriott International
Marriott International has been around for almost a century, but the now-multinational company is still a main player in the hotel industry. Like others in the travel industry, Marriott was hard hit during the pandemic. But CEO Anthony Capuano expects to see sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement in global revenue-per-available-room (RevPAR) this quarter versus 2019. In the third quarter of 2021, Marriott recorded a decrease of 26% in global RevPAR to the same period in 2019. This is a significant improvement from the second quarter RevPAR’s decline of 44% from the same quarter in 2019. Could this be a good sign for MAR stock?
Despite the ongoing pandemic, Marriott sees no signs of slowing down. This week, the company signed an agreement with Sela Sport Company to develop two new luxury hotels in Saudi Arabia. Last month, the Melbourne Marriott Hotel Docklands welcomed its first guests. The hotel became the first international five-star hotel in Melbourne’s harbor suburb. And the company is rapidly expanding in China, catering to the local market. For example, its millennial-focused Moxy brand is expected to make its debut in Suzhou in 2022. On this note, could MAR stock be a top travel stock to watch in the stock market?
American Airlines
Like other airlines, American Airlines was not immune to the impact of the pandemic. Yet its third-quarter earnings show promise as leisure travel picks up again. It recorded $9 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 20% sequentially from the second quarter of 2021. Furthermore, the airline continues to expect robust demand during peak travel periods in the fourth quarter. For this period, the airline expects more than 6,000 peak day departures.
American Airlines, via its Northeast Alliance with JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU), has managed to add new international services this year. The airline now has services from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Tel Aviv in Israel, and from JFK to Athens in Greece. Its newest route was launched in November between JFK and Delhi in India. With leisure travel slowly becoming a must-do again, would you be watching AAL stock?
Airbnb
Unlike Booking Holdings’ many accommodation platforms, Airbnb markets its platform as part of the sharing economy. Guests contact hosts personally, and sometimes, guests rent a room in a house that the host is staying in. Like many in the travel industry, Airbnb’s third-quarter results show that with the relaxation of restrictions, comes recovery. It reported $2.24 billion in revenue during the quarter, up by 67% year-over-year. The company also reported that 79.7 million nights and experiences were booked in the third quarter, an increase of 29% year-over-year.
Could the new Omicron variant derail Airbnb’s recovery? Some predict that Airbnb’s solid growth and its improving profitability will cushion the new variant’s impact. Airbnb’s inventory, which has entire units that can be rented, is also likely to be more suited to social distancing. Keeping this in mind, would you be buying ABNB stock?
