Haixia Wang

Higher prices and concerns about the economy haven't stopped Americans from traveling. Over half of Americans traveled in July. And nearly 60 percent of them said they might travel before the summer ends.

Nearly 47% of Americans traveled in May 2022, 6 points higher than March, signaling a strong start as we get closer to the summer season. However, anxiety about the economy reached the highest

Despite the spring break, 41% of Americans traveled in March 2022, little changed from January. However, it’s 5 percentage points higher than March last year, signaling a somewhat healthier start as we inch towards summer season.

In January, 40% of Americans traveled, only 5 percentage points lower than January 2020, before the pandemic hit. While we expect to see even more normalcy in travel as we move closer to another travel season, where the economy is heading could have an impact, as more than half of Americans now believe the U.S. economy will get worse in the next 12 months.

Sustainability and remote work will shape how we live and how we travel profoundly on the other side of the pandemic. Understanding what travelers think of these two topics and how these two areas will impact their future travel decisions is crucial for the industry rebuild.

The pandemic has greatly disrupted travel, both in volumes, and for those who did manage to travel, how they traveled. We conducted a survey of travelers in five major tourism markets to understand what has changed and what new habits will last post-pandemic.

The U.S travel sector took a blow from Omicron during the holiday season, but the effect was mild. In December, 45% of Americans traveled, only 2 percentage points lower than September, when Delta was in retreat. In particular, nearly 6% of all December trips were to another country, marking the highest rate since the pandemic started. And looking ahead to 2022, Americans are optimistic about traveling more.

The Delta variant didn’t do too much damage to the U.S. travel industry. In September, 47% of Americans traveled, only 1.7 percentage points lower than the record-setting July. And luckily, the virus is in retreat and the upcoming winter holiday season looks very promising for travel companies.

July did turn out to be a record-breaking month for U.S. travel. However, the Delta Variant has already made some consumers halt their travel plan for the remainder of 2021. How the new surge evolves will deeply impact the fragile recovery path in the next few months.

Travel companies slashed marketing budgets last year as travel in the majority of the world became an unknown future. Now that the recovery has begun, they need to double down on marketing investment to drive recovery and growth.

In May, 42.% of Americans traveled, 2 percentage points higher than February 2020, before the pandemic hit. The U.S. summer vacation was off to a very promising start.

The U.S. travel rate jumped to 35.3% in March, marking the biggest two-month increase since travel hit rock bottom in April 2020. With over half of American adults already vaccinated, the summer vacation peak is looking very promising for the travel industry.