Research Shows Travelers Settling Into New Normal

Americans are adjusting to traveling in the new normal.

A new Longwoods International and Miles Partnership tracking study of American travelers finds that 18 months into the pandemic, patterns are emerging, showing a new normal--at least for now.

“The data clearly shows how the pandemic has profoundly changed the U.S. travel industry, not only the number of people traveling but where they are going and what they are doing when they do travel,” said Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International. “What we don’t know yet is how many of these changes are temporary, and how many will be the new normal for both travelers and the industry.”

Changes that have emerged include a trend of taking fewer trips, a switch from urban to rural destinations and the popularity of drive destinations. With about half of travelers changing their travel plans because of coronavirus, 32 percent are choosing drive destinations over fly destinations and a similar percentage have changed from international travel to domestic.

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The data shows that travelers have high expectations for their experiences. More than 80 percent expected service levels from travel suppliers--hotels, restaurants, attractions, airlines, etc.--to be equal to or higher than before the pandemic. However, Longwoods research found that a quarter of travelers judged the quality of service on their last trip to be below what they had experienced prior to COVID-19.

Overall, a growing number of Americans have plans to travel within the next six months. In this survey, 89 percent of travelers said they had plans, a number that has remained relatively steady since April.

Covid-19 is still greatly impacting travelers' plans. Thirty-three percent listed Covid as their top concern, with 26 percent saying their financial situation is impacting their decisions, and 24 percent indicated transportation costs were the key factor.

The number of travelers who support opening their communities to visitors is still declining from a peak of 67 percent in June to just 47 percent in September.

A majority of travelers say they feel safe traveling outside of their communities. Fifty-six percent currently say it's safe, but that number is also declining from a peak in June of 72 percent.

The delta variant is still impacting travel. Thirty-six percent of travelers said that they have postponed 2021 trips taking place between now and the end of the year to later or into the next year because of the delta variant. However, 37 percent said that they have not changed their plans. Just 7 percent said they had now plans for 2021, and 10 percent didn't know or weren't sure.

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