Travellers Looking For Work-Life Balance

As the pandemic recedes, two thirds of American travellers are focused on finding a balance between their work worlds and their non-work life according to the latest Longwoods International tracking study.

More than half of those travellers are less likely to do work on their leisure trips than they did during the pandemic.

Amir Eylon, President and CEO of Longwoods International, said that: “With the stress of the pandemic waning, we are seeing a new normal for travellers, one that values leisure travel as a break and escape from the work world.”

Eylon continued: “And we know from many of our previous surveys during the past three years that being with family and friends is a key motivator of leisure travel planning and decisions.”

The decline in both COVID-19 cases and gas prices have reduced the impact of both factors in travel planning.

Only 17% of travellers say coronavirus will greatly impact their travel decisions in the next six months, the lowest level since March of 2020.

And 23% say that gas prices will greatly impact their travel in the next six months, down from 43% in July.

The survey, supported by Miles Partnership, was fielded Sept. 28, 2022 using a national sample randomly drawn from a consumer panel of 1,000 adults, ages 18 and over. Quotas were used to match Census targets for age, gender, and region to make the survey representative of the U. S. population. More Information –

In looking at American Travel Sentiment towards the current relationship between one’s work and travel as compared to last year, Longwoods International learned several interesting things including:

• 58% of American travellers indicate that they are less likely to work during their leisure trips than they were a year ago.
• 66% say they are more focused now on their work/life balance.

This likely signals a shift in travellers really needing to disconnect more when they get away for leisure purposes, despite the growing trend of “bleisure” travel. These folks felt always “on” or connected to the office during the pandemic and now are seeking more of a break when it’s “leisure time.”

• In a first look at the upcoming Holiday Travel Season, 31% of those Americans with plans to travel expect to spend more this year than last on their travels, while 51% expect to spend about the same. Only 11% of respondents indicated that they currently have no plans to travel this Holiday Season, so this initial high demand could bode well for the visitor economy, despite the pressures of inflation!
• Speaking of demand, 91% of American travellers still indicate plans to go somewhere in the next six months, continuing this sustained pattern of high demand … despite the economic and reduced, but lingering pandemic challenges.
• In other encouraging news, for the first time since Spring, those indicating that gas prices will impact their decision to travel fell below a majority (48%), with only 23% saying it will greatly impact their decision to travel (down 20 points since its peak in July!).
• A pandemic low 17% of American travellers still indicate that fear of COVID-19 will greatly impact their decision to travel in the next six months … while a pandemic high of 49% say that COVID-19 is no longer influencing their travel plans whatsoever.

Go to https://longwoods-intl.com/covid-19 for more.