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and started their travel planning company in March 2020鈥攔ight when the pandemic hit and international borders closed down.

While travel companies, along with businesses in the live events and fitness industries, bore the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Out of Office, which helps users source travel recommendations from friends, pushed through. It launched its app in August 2021 and most recently raised a $3.5 million seed round of funding in April.

鈥淚f you fast-forward to today, you鈥檙e seeing people are traveling more than ever despite the economic conditions looming,鈥� Seale said.

Seale is correct. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago, travel spending surpassed 2019 levels in April 2022, according to a by the .

But that doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean venture investment in travel companies is keeping up, especially with as investor fears about a recession rise. Funding to VC-backed companies in the travel and tourism industry group is at around $3.2 billion globally so far this year, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

This is slightly behind where it was at the same time last year when investment into the travel sector rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, VC-backed travel and tourism companies raised $10.7 billion. That was close to where funding was in 2019, which saw peak funding for the sector of the past five years.

鈥淲ith so much pent-up demand for travel during the pandemic, the travel sector was really recovering quickly and growing, and yet people are trying to do things a little differently as a result of the pandemic,鈥� said of of investment in 2021.

Jetblue Technology Ventures invests in early-stage companies innovating in the travel and hospitality space.

鈥淚t was sort of a reset,鈥� Taub said.

Looking back

Last year laid the foundation for the travel industry鈥檚 recovery. The widespread rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines helped restore a sense of normalcy to the world, and travel restrictions eased up.

Simultaneously, VC funding to the sector picked up, and companies in the space made big moves of their own. and , for example, both went public last year, along with aviation companies and

But volatility in the public markets have caused investors to pause. VC funding as a whole is down, and travel is no exception.

So far in 2022, about a third of the companies in the travel and tourism sector that have raised funding were seed-stage companies. This includes , Out of Office and . Several are in the travel planning space, while others are in the hospitality or aviation tech space.

What鈥檚 next

It鈥檚 too early to say if funding to the travel sector as a whole will pick up. It鈥檚 somewhat dependent on the macroeconomic environment. Many VCs are waiting to see what happens in the broader market.

Especially with a recession looming, travel in general is expected to come down following this year鈥檚 鈥渟upercycle,鈥� according to CEO . In terms of funding, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think, travel or not, there鈥檚 a founder that can raise on an up round right now,鈥� he said

But according to Samantha Patil, founder of Los Angeles-based travel planning startup even a recession doesn鈥檛 mean that people will stop traveling altogether.

鈥淚 think as long as people can remember the point of time in their life that they couldn’t travel, which wasn鈥檛 that long ago, they鈥檒l want to travel,鈥� Patil said.

That might mean more local trips rather than a multicountry tour of Europe, she said

Seale of Out of Office, expressed a similar sentiment, pointing to the increased flexibility many people have with work-from-home policies.

鈥淧eople have had more flexibility than they鈥檝e ever had before, so regardless, people will get out,鈥� Seale said.

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