With Valentine’s Day in its middle, February is a month often associated with love.
NB: This is an article from Destination Analysts
Fittingly, love seems to be the feeling Americans have towards travel right now. Americans’ level of excitement to travel is at a 3-year high, reaching 8 on a scale from 0-10. In fact, fully 41% of Americans described their excitement for travel at a level 10!
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Right now, 84% of American travelers have existing trip plans, with one-third likely to take at least one international trip this year. Half of American travelers report having 2 weeks or more of days available for their leisure travel. Booking behavior appears to also be up: 17% of American travelers said they made reservations or purchased tickets for trips in the last week alone. Keep reading for some of the factors driving the love for travel and more interesting trends.
Economic Anxieties Easing
Factors such as easing inflation and GDP growth seem to have abated Americans’ economic anxieties to some degree. Although the majority continue to believe that the US will enter a recession soon, 45% of American travelers believe they will be better off financially a year from now. The percent of American travelers who report that inflation led them to cancel a trip dropped to 27% after peaking at 36% in June 2022. Travel costs has abated as a travel deterrent compared to last month. Currently, 42% of American travelers say high travel prices have kept them from traveling in the past month, down from 49% in December. We are seeing a rebound in the percent of Americans who say the present is a good time to spend on leisure travel. At 30%, this is the highest it has been since last summer. In addition, over half of American travelers say that travel is a priority in their budget in the near term. This metric is also increasing, hitting a six-month high after a downward trend in the last half of 2022.
