Aim is to speed travel recovery from COVID pandemic

Google's new Travel Insights with Google website is intended to help travel businesses and destinations make better, data-informed decisions for faster recovery from the major setbacks the travel industry has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The website is built around 3 tools:

Destination Insights, which was created as a resource for governments and tourist boards, shows markets of highest current demand for a destination compared with 2019 data, and the locations within countries that are currently of greatest interest to searchers. Intent is to assist destinations with market targeting and prioritization of routes to reopen.

Hotel Insights bundles hotel search data and booking trends to help small and independent hotels with market targeting, as well as linking to resources for other Google products including Google My Business and Google Reviews.

Travel Analytics Center provides a "deep dive into travel demands" for Google's travel commercial partners: Google Ads Air Partners, Google Hotel Partners, Google Flights Search Partners and Enterprise Partners. This tool provides a "user-friendly web portal" through which partners can access performance and demand metrics to "improve operation and empower strategic decision making."

Per VP/Product Management - Google Travel Richard Holden, the new tools are an extension of other Google initiatives designed to help the travel industry recover, but that “We’re certainly not focused on trying to encourage travel at a time when travel may still be unsafe in various parts of the world.”

Although Travel Insights with Google is eventually going to be rolled out globally, initial emphasis will be on Asia-Pacific where COVID-19 is currently best controlled.