Travel Tuesday Gains Momentum Becoming the New Black Friday for Avid Travelers

by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 6:05 PM ET, Tue November 5, 2024

For years, there was Black Friday. And then came Cyber Monday, followed a few years later by Small Business Saturday.

And somewhere along the way, Travel Tuesday quietly joined the ranks of these specially marketed shopping days (or perhaps more accurately described as shopping extravaganzas).

Well, quiet no more. Over the past two years, it seems Travel Tuesday, which is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, has gained serious traction, according to a newly released report from McKinsey & Company.

A day on which shoppers can find deals on travel purchases such as hotel stays or flights, Travel Tuesday has been the focus of an increasing number of online searches, according to the report.

In fact, searches for Travel Tuesday (which this year takes place on December 3) showed a more than five-fold increase over a two-year period.

“A day centered on travel deals seems like a potential fit for a moment when people are yearning to travel more than ever before, but are often in search of discounts because of rising living costs,” says the report.

The lion’s share of the growing interest in Travel Tuesday comes from the United States and Canada, per the report. Though there is some elevated volume in Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Asia’s consumer market, meanwhile, seems to have very little engagement in the Travel Tuesday phenomenon. Instead, the most popular shopping day in that region is China’s Singles Day, which dates back to 1993 and occurs each year on November 11, according to the report.

Travel Tuesday Booking Spike in 2023

It seems 2023, in particular, was a boon for Travel Tuesday. Data provided by the travel marketing platform Sojern shows that there were notable increases in hotel, cruise, and airline bookings by US travelers on Travel Tuesday last year, compared with the two weeks before the travel shopping event and the two weeks after.

Additional data from Sojern reveals that US traveler bookings that took place on Travel Tuesday 2023 were heavily weighted in favor of destinations that are closely linked with resort accommodations.

For instance, searches across the 15 most popular destinations overall were up 37 percent on Travel Tuesday, compared with the average results for other Tuesdays in November and December 2023.

But search traffic spiked higher, on average, for resort destinations such as Nassau, Bahamas, and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, says the report.

“One explanation could be that travelers are in search of discounted package deals on Travel Tuesday, and resort offerings are often tied to such package deals,” the report explains. “There is also evidence that travelers are more likely to book travel in warm-weather destinations when the weather in their own regions is gloomy.”

Travel Industry Takeaways From Report Data

While it’s interesting for the average consumer perhaps, to witness the growth in popularity of Travel Tuesday, if you’re a travel industry executive or business, there are also some useful takeaways.

Per McKinsey, travel industry players looking for ways to embrace the Travel Tuesday phenomenon can consider the following possible actions:

Travel companies can treat the Travel Tuesday marketing moment as an opportunity to help bolster revenue during the period between late November and early December, which otherwise tends to see low booking volume (as it’s a bit late for most traditional winter travel booking and a bit early for most traditional summer travel booking), says the report. 
Travel Tuesday can provide an opportunity for travel companies to create and promote travel packages (for example, a ten-day cruise, with flights included), since consumers have come to expect they will be offered deals on this day. Margin boosts might be attained through offers that include add-ons, such as rental cars or travel experiences. 
European travel companies can anticipate the possibility that Travel Tuesday will become a growing phenomenon in their region, given that other shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday have spread beyond North America and have found a foothold in Europe, says the report. European travel players might benefit from being early movers in recognizing and capitalizing on the trend.