How Much Will Americans Spend on Holiday Travel This Year?

A new report from NerdWallet has revealed new insights into the holiday travel season, as well as new projections into how Americans are going to spend their money on holiday travel.

More Americans are planning to travel during the holiday travel season than in 2020, up 24 percent from last year’s numbers for a total of 43 percent. Contributing to that rise is the nearly one-third of Americans who didn’t travel during the 2020 holiday season but plan to this year (at 29 percent).

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The Holiday Travel Report also found that Americans are projected to spend close to $200 billion on travel during the holidays this year, with an average of $1,814 spent per traveler.

Nevertheless, travelers are still conscious of their money, with 89 percent of Americans choosing cheaper flights and hotels, or opting to use loyalty rewards points to save on expenses. The biggest category that suggested budget awareness was the flight category at 37 percent, followed closely by hotels at 33 percent.

While travel is expected to reach greater levels than it had last year, the pandemic is still impacting traveler's methods of travel, accommodation preferences and even impacting who they spend their time with while on vacation. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) have changed their preferred method of transportation to get to their destination, while another 22 percent have changed their normal destination and accommodation type because of the pandemic.

“Sadly, we’re still having to make many of the same difficult decisions about holiday travel as we had to make in 2020. If you want this year’s celebrations to make up for last year’s holiday-by-video-call, just be mindful of your spending. Taking care of yourself this year means following COVID precautions, but it also means protecting your finances, too,” said Sara Rathner, travel expert at NerdWallet.

Save money ahead of time, make flexible plans in case of weather and pandemic-related changes and stay up-to-date on your destination’s COVID-19 situation, requirements and restrictions to ensure a safe and happy holiday travel season.