2022 will see a ‘full global recovery’ and an end to the pandemic — here are 3 easy ways to profit from the long-awaited return to normal

With the omicron variant continuing to surge across the country, it’s fair — and fairly depressing at this point — to wonder if the COVID-19 pandemic might weigh on the economy for yet another year.

But it’s not a worry for America’s biggest bank.

In a message shared recently with clients, JPMorgan Chase global research leader Marko Kolanovic says, “Our view is that 2022 will be the year of a full global recovery, an end of the pandemic, and a return to normal economic and market conditions we had prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.”

JPMorgan is forecasting strong consumer spending and the return of mobility, Kolanovic says. Put those things together and you’ve got a recipe for a serious bounceback in the travel industry.

Here are three travel companies to watch. They’re already feeling the positive effects of people venturing away from home more, so 2022 should be brighter for their share prices if the rebound sticks.

You may even be able to build a portfolio that includes some travel stocks like these using a few spare pennies.

Airbnb (ABNB)

You might think that the pandemic would have annihilated a vacation rental company because so many people cut back on travel, but Airbnb’s stock managed to gain about 13% in 2021.

There are several reasons why Airbnb remains attractive, even with omicron uncertainty hanging in the air.

The Airbnb app remains a first option for many travelers who abandoned traditional hotels. If those travelers hope to avoid crowds, staying in an Airbnb provides more social distancing than a hotel. And once the pandemic has passed and rental demand in city centers returns, there will be no shortage of real estate investors fashioning apartments and condos into Airbnb rentals.

The company just wrapped up the best quarter in its brief history. Q3 saw Airbnb rake in more than $2.2 billion in revenue, a 67% year-over-year increase. Net profits for the quarter were $834 million.

Carnival Corp. (CCL)

Carnival, America’s largest cruise operator, has not fared as well as Airbnb. Since the start of January 2020, the cruise ship operator has seen its share price sink by about 50%.

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That’ll happen when numerous COVID outbreaks on boats have the world thinking your product is a floating germ lab.

But the global cruise industry is alive and kicking. In December, 68 brands are set to operate 239 cruise ships, according to Cruise Industry News, which predicts major companies will be back to operating a large part of their fleets by early 2022. The rebound in demand has analysts forecasting a return to profitability for Carnival next year.

That’ll be welcome news because 2021 has been awful. Carnival posted a net loss of $2 billion in the third quarter alone. But the company also had $7.8 billion in liquidity at the end of Q3, which the company says will be enough to return it to full operations.

Booking Holdings (BKNG)

Booking Holdings is a lot more than just Booking.com. The company owns several popular travel fare aggregators, including Priceline, Agoda, Kayak, Cheapflights and even restaurant reservation platform OpenTable.

In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, consumers booked 845 million room nights, 77 million rental car days and 7 million airplane tickets through websites owned by Booking Holdings.

With little opportunity for competitors to swoop in and absorb its market share in the last two years, the company stands to continue as a dominant player in the travel booking space.

Booking is already reaping the benefits of rising demand from travelers. It brought in almost $4.7 billion in revenue in the third quarter, a 77% increase over the same period last year.

Over the past year, Booking shares are up about 8%.

There’s more to investing than stocks

Nothing against JPMorgan, but no one can truly predict what 2022 will mean for the stock market. A number of prominent investors have said it’s due for a historical correction.

If you want to invest in something that avoids the queasy up-and-down of the stock market, it might be time to take a look at an overlooked asset: fine art.

Contemporary artwork has outperformed the S&P 500 by a commanding 174% over the past 25 years, according to the Citi Global Art Market chart.

And it’s becoming a popular way to diversify because it’s a real physical asset with little correlation to the stock market.

On a scale of -1 to +1, with 0 representing no link at all, Citi found the correlation between contemporary art and the S&P 500 was just 0.12.

Investing in art by the likes of Banksy and Andy Warhol used to be an option only for the ultrarich. But with a new investing platform, you can invest in iconic artworks, too, just like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates do.

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.