Stats: Americans Would Give Up Internet to Travel Right Now

Americans are missing travel quite a bit, it seems. According to a recent Amex Trendex survey— a new data resource commissioned by American Express that tracks how people feel about traveling, spending and saving—41 percent of people would give up Internet access for a month to be able to travel safely and comfortably right now.

This same survey also found that nearly two thirds of consumers (62 percent) feel most comfortable with taking a road trip in the next three months versus just under one-third of consumers feeling comfortable flying or taking a train (29 percent).

The good news is that findings from the survey point to early signs of travel recovery. These include:

  • Domestic travel is growing for the short-term: Nearly half of respondents (44 percent) will be willing to travel domestically within three months. Just one-third 34 percent) said the same in early May.
  • The top reason for traveling is visiting family and friends: 92 percent of respondents miss visiting or spending time with friends and family and this will likely be a big motivator for travel.
  • Consumers are spending time at home dreaming of future trips: Nearly one in four adults consider themselves “Wanderlust Daydreamers” and are spending their time at home thinking about and planning for future travel.
  • Hotels over home-shares: Consumers felt slightly more comfortable staying at a hotel (38 percent) than at a home-sharing option (32 percent).

In line with this, American Express Travel has seen similar trends when looking at its own booking data. Hotel bookings over the last month were 91 percent domestic and 9 percent international, while top domestic destinations included Florida, California, Texas, Georgia, Colorado and Arizona. American Express Travel is also seeing that booking windows are very short: 63 percent of U.S. bookings over the past month have been for travel within the next 30 days, compared to 9 percent for travel 120-plus days out. It also shows that road trips are definitely top of mind: U.S. car rental bookings grew on average 20 percent week over week over the last month.

This poll was conducted by Morning Consult between May 26-28, 2020 among a national sample of 2,000 adults with a household income of $70,000 or greater and that flew at least once in 2019.

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