Executives in the travel business anticipate that international travel is finally back in 2023, especially with China travelers emerging from lockdown to traverse the world once more.

Matt Goldberg, president and CEO of Tripadvisor, said on his company's first-quarter earnings call that appetite for international travel is higher than it's ever been.

"While travelers are just starting to kick off the peak planning period for summer holidays, summer travel intent is already significantly higher than last year at this time by advanced planners," Goldberg said. "Our data also suggests that share of international travel intent is returning to pre-pandemic levels in the U.S. and [Europe, Middle East and Africa] and [Asia-Pacific] intent to travel is more than double than last summer. We're also observing an increase in experiences searches year-over-year, particularly in Europe."

This week, however, reports emerged from China that a new omicron variant of COVID-19 labeled XBB is behind a surge of new cases, according to Forbes. New weekly infections in China could reach as many as 40 million by the end of May, and as many as 65 million per week by the end of June.

But in late April and early May, executives from hotel brand companies, real estate investment trusts and even home-sharing platform Airbnb were excited about the potential recovery of international travel demand this year. Executives shared their expectations for the segment for the rest of the year during first-quarter earnings calls.

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