As vaccination rates continue to go up and travel restrictions are lifted across the country and globe, many Americans are eager to resume traveling this summer.
After conducting a survey on travel sentiment in January of this year, IPX 1031 recently surveyed 1,500 Americans to re-visit the topic six months later to see how feelings towards travel have changed.Most notably, 85 percent of respondents are optimistic about traveling in 2021—up from 48 percent in January. Nine percent are somewhat optimistic and only 6 percent are not. Further, an even three-quarters specifically plan to travel this year. Sixteen percent are unsure, and 9 percent have no plans to travel in 2021. Best yet? More than half (55 percent) have already booked their trip. For reference, in January, only 58 percent of Americans planned to travel this year.
The top reasons for not traveling include not feeling safe due to the pandemic (64 percent), not having the budget (46 percent), travel/flying restrictions (27 percent), dining and entertainment restrictions (21 percent) and inability to take time off from work (13 percent).
Americans have an average of 2.5 trips planned for 2021 with an average length of trip being four days. Among the 75 percent who plan to vacation within the U.S., 36 percent are planning to travel this summer; another 23 percent plan to travel in the fall, with 16 percent planning for winter.
The most common response in regard to consumer spend was $1,000 to $1,999 (22 percent). Nearly the same number (20 percent) said they would spend $2,000 to $2,999. Fourteen percent each said $3,000 to $,3999 or $5,000-plus. Among those who plan to vacation this year, 44 percent say they expect to spend more money on their trip than they normally would spend.
Hotels are the most preferred accommodation (38 percent), with short-term rentals (like Airbnb or VRBO) following at 16 percent. Vacation home/timeshare was third at 14 percent and “with family” was fourth at 13 percent.
Nearly three-quarters of Americans (71 percent) now feel safe flying (just 48 percent said so in January). In addition, more than half (55 percent) of respondents believe that travel will fully return without any restrictions by the end of the year.
Source: IPX 1031
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