As we hurtle towards the July 4th holiday and the true summer travel season, reports with ‘official’ summer travel stats from here and there are landing in our inbox.
Here are some of the top line numbers that seem of interest.
Let us know if they strike a chord with how your summer travel plans are shaping up.
Priceline’s inaugural State of Summer Travel Report concludes what most others do: despite rising travel costs and growing affordability concerns, Americans aren’t giving up on summer vacation.
The report (based on a survey of 2,500 U.S. adults) found that while 44% of Americans say a summer vacation feels completely out of reach this year, 79% still plan to take at least one trip and 73% say they’ll do whatever it takes to make a summer vacation happen.
For the 4th of July holiday, Expedia found that Americans are still traveling but making more deliberate, budget-conscious decisions about how they book.
According to Expedia, searches using budget filters have surged 1,265% year over year, intrest in economy fares has climed by 120%.
Meanwhile, VRBO reports that 37% of summer vacation rental bookings are for discounted properties. In additionk, bookings made within 14 days of check-in are up 16%, suggesting more travelers are waiting for deals.
And the Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers found that more Americans are reducing the number of trips they’re taking due to concerns about gas prices. (That’s up 4.7 points since April to 41%)
But they found some (sort of) silver linings, including an increased demand for regional drive markets as people opt for road trips instead of long haul air travel and a U.S. Summer Travel season with high visitor volumes – but lower per person spending.
