The companies will merge their expertise on monitoring travel booking behaviour and gaining consumer insights across the increased number of channels consumers are using nowadays to plan and book their trips and holidays.

Laurens Van Den Oever, GfK’s global lead for the travel & hospitality industry, said: ” In this highly fragmented industry, fact-based decision making is critical. Serving and understanding today’s (digital) traveller means our clients take more risks than ever to provide the right service.”

Olivier Jager, founder of ForwardKeys, said: “Our solutions start by answering some very fundamental questions: what is the potential of the market; what will travel demand be in the coming months for each destination around the globe; and what are the events that are triggering that demand?”