London, UK – New research from roaming providers Kaleido Intelligence predicts an 86% increase in retail roaming revenues from consumer mobile connections for operators in 2022, reaching US$8 billion (€7.19 billion). This is forecast to exceed $16 billion (€14.38 billion) in 2026, exceeding pre-COVID levels as travel recovers fully and roaming usage across key markets drives growth.
Kaleido’s new Retail Roaming: Market Trends & Future Outlook 2022 report found that Asian markets witnessed the biggest decline in 2020 and 2021; but will recover to exceed $7 billion (€6.29 billion) by 2026. Meanwhile, retail roaming spend by UK consumers will increase in 2022 following the introduction of daily charges for access to RLAH plans by mobile operators: consequently, the market will witness a 144% growth in retail roaming spend in 2022.
Travel recovery in 2022 to represent 107% Y-o-Y growth
Meanwhile, global outbound travel trips fell by 72% in 2021 due to the continued impact of COVID-19 and is forecast to represent a 107% y-o-y growth in 2022 to exceed 1 billion. Globally, travel will return to 82% of pre-COVID volume by the end of 2023 and 104% by the end of 2024. Some markets are expected to be impacted severely and will only see outbound travel volume exceed pre-COVID levels in 2025 and beyond.
Shrey Bhandari, senior research consultant at Kaleido Intelligence, comments, “Mobile operators must brace themselves for the ‘new normal’ and understand that roaming spending is likely to remain low. This sharp decline indicates that the roaming sector continues to suffer due to the uncertain travel environment. These figures also suggest that the industry may need a significant amount of time before it reaches pre-COVID levels”.
Kaleido’s Mobile Roaming Data Hub H2 2021 provides key corridor data for travel recovery and covers 60+ global markets, enabling clients to make detailed plans based on over 80,000 unique datapoints.
Click here to see the report details
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