Cancellations rise ahead of holidays due to Omicron, Trivago says

Concerns over the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 and travel restrictions have caused a spike in cancellation rates, hitting growth in traffic related to holiday travel planning, online hotel search platform Trivago NV said on Tuesday.

Cancellation rates have increased by about 35% since November and with holiday travel-planning-related traffic falling 10%, the company said, adding that most travelers were choosing domestic destinations. Overall traffic around holiday travel planning has slowed, growing by just 4% since the variant was discovered, Trivago added.

Fears over the variant grew after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of a "tidal wave" of new cases, with the country reporting the first publicly confirmed death in the world due to Omicron on Monday.