Consumer Habits

U.S. Travel Tracker: December 2021 Highlights

Consumer Habits

U.S. Travel Tracker: December 2021 Highlights

January 2022
Haixia Wang

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Skift Take

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.

Report Overview

In our newly released Skift Recovery Index: December 2021 Highlights report, we opened the overview of the key trends we’ve identified with “2021 Brought More Uncertainty, Not Less”. And in our annual Megatrends presentation that we hosted yesterday, we talked about how uncertainty is the new certainty in travel. Our U.S Travel Tracker survey tells the same story. When we released our September Travel Tracker, we were still dealing with the Delta surge. Little did we know that another surge, bigger and broader, would sweep the world three months later.

Fortunately, the damage to the U.S. travel industry has been even less than the Delta surge this time around. In December, 45% of Americans traveled, only 2 percentage points lower than September, when Delta was in retreat. On top of that, air travel and cross-border travel both registered healthy rates.

The pent-up travel demand is likely to continue in 2022, with nearly one-third of Americans expect to increase their travel spending in the next 12 months. This is despite the rising concerns over the economy and its impact on their own financial situation.

What You'll Learn From This Report

  • Travel incidences, January 2020–December 2021
  • December travel highlights
  • Covid impacted travel, January–December 2021
  • Changing consumer sentiments on the economic outlook, February 2020–January 2022
  • Consumer intent for 2022 travel
  • Remote work trend and its impact on travel and mobility
  • Covid vaccine rate and its impact on travel