Travellers Looking To The Future

The rapid decline in new COVID-19 cases across the U.S. has travellers gearing up planning for both domestic and international travel according to the most recent Longwoods International tracking study of American travellers.

It also reports that the percentage of travellers who say that coronavirus will greatly their decision to travel in the next six months dropped from 32% in early January to 24% in early February.

As well, the number of travellers who reported they are changing their travel plans because of COVID-19 fell from 58% to 49% during the same time period.

Amir Eylon, President and CEO of Longwoods International, observed of the findings that: “Barring some new setback, the much-awaited shift in mindset among American travellers from “pandemic” to “endemic” travel finally may be underway.”

And Eylon added: “Hopefully the interest in resuming international trips by American travelers also means that the U.S. will be hosting growing numbers of international visitors from around the world.”

The latest survey notes that half of American travellers have plans to travel internationally during the next two years.

About a third of those planning international trips are headed to Europe, with a similar percentage choosing the Caribbean.

A quarter of these travellers expect to go to Mexico, and almost as many are planning a trip to Canada.

Other key findings include:

• News of the significant decline in new Omicron variant cases are clearly impacting sentiment as only 24% of American travellers indicate that COVID-19 would greatly impact their decision to travel in the next six months… That’s a decrease of 8 points in just one month.
• 49% of American travellers indicate that the pandemic is causing them to change travel plans in some form or fashion… That reflects a decrease of 9 points in just one month.
• Possibly continuing this shift in mindset among travellers from pandemic to endemic, we see that 31% of American travellers now say the pandemic has no influence on their travel plans.  This is a 6 point increase in just the past two weeks.
• About half (52%) of American travellers have plans to travel internationally for leisure over the next two years with Europe (36%) and the Caribbean (33%) leading the way as top destinations of choice.
• 30% of those Americans planning to travel abroad say they plan to spend more than they did on their international trips than they did pre-pandemic.
• Pent up travel demand remains very high with 87% of American travellers indicating plans to travel somewhere in the next six months.

Go to www.longwoods-intl.com for more.