It is interesting to see from this week’s travel sentiment study by Destination Analysts that domestic travelers’ primary reasons for their next leisure travel are vacation trips, visiting friends and family, and weekend getaways. For vacation trips, travelers will be looking for outdoors activities, parks and beaches, and wellness-related experiences away from crowds.
42% of American travelers currently indicate that they prefer to travel by car on road trips. But we are now also seeing the average trip distance they intend to travel this year has increased to a 539-mile average with 27% anticipating travel over 1000 miles. This means that a portion of tourists will certainly book air travel to get to their leisure destination.
In terms of destination types, beach destinations and resorts lead with 32.7%, and interestingly urban/metro areas and rural areas are currently tied at round 28% each, indicating that people will soon feel comfortable traveling to big cities again.
It is also interesting to see what types of businesses travelers intend to visit on their next leisure trip: