11/19/2021
Update 11/19/21: Ohio's Travel Industry and the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
VACCINATION STATUS OF CHILDREN COMPLICATES TRAVEL OUTLOOK FOR AMERICANS
Key findings from Longwoods International released Nov. 16, 2021
- Heading into the holiday travel season, one third (33%) of American travelers now say that COVID-19 no longer has any influence of their travel plans, which is a pandemic high.
- Overall, demand is still very strong with 89% of American travelers indicating that they have plans to travel in the next six months.
- 70% of American travelers now feel safe traveling outside of their communities.
- More than one third of American travelers with children under the age of 18 report that they have unvaccinated children and no hesitations about having them travel, as opposed to one quarter (27%) who say they also have unvaccinated children but do have hesitations to travel.
- 49% of American travelers report that they are either unlikely or definitely not traveling internationally in the next 12 months, while 29% say they are likely or definitely will travel abroad in the same time period. This means that US destinations still have plenty of opportunity to capture these "high value" travelers, who may still be looking for domestic alternatives this year.
CONSUMERS PREFER TRAVEL ADS DO NOT FEATURE CROWDS, SAFETY PROTOCOLS STILL IMPORTANT, PLANS FOR THANKSGIVING TRAVEL EXCEED 2019 INTENT
Key findings from Destination Analysts fielded Nov. 10-12, 2021
- The Thanksgiving holiday looks to be a busy one—possibly even exceeding 2019 travel levels. The percent of American travelers who say they plan to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday has more than doubled compared to 2020—31% currently say they will versus 13% last year. This rate is even higher than in 2019, when 23% of American travelers reported taking a Thanksgiving holiday trip.
- COVID remains a travel impediment, with 17% saying they have cancelled a Thanksgiving trip this year due to the ongoing pandemic.
- Taking a road trip, visiting friends and family, and shopping continue to have the strongest safety perceptions among travelers.
- Americans’ sense of normalcy around leisure activities has dropped 2 percentage points over the past two weeks. Now 30% of American travelers feel that the U.S. is “normal” or “close to normal.”
- With 54% of Americans anticipating another significant wave of COVID-19 in the next three months, nearly three quarters say it’s important that destinations they visit continue to maintain safety protocols. While this feeling is even stronger amongst older travelers (77%), 68% of Millennials or younger travelers also deem public pandemic safety measures important in where they choose to travel.
- While 30% are comfortable with seeing maskless people in travel ads, 37% are uncomfortable, while 34% are neutral.
- Large crowds of people in travel ads are likely to draw even more scrutiny. While 21% of Americans are comfortable seeing large groups of people in travel ads now, 42% would be uncomfortable (37% are neutral).
- When asked about the lifting of international travel restrictions at this point in time, the majority of American travelers (54%) said that it was good or very good news. However, this development was relatively more positively received amongst travelers in the West (62%) than in the Midwest (47%).
Travel Research Round-Up
This week's latest trends and traveler sentiments in a one-page research summary.