94% of Americans plan to travel this year. Are you one of them? I am.
My travel client TripIt recently conducted a survey of 3,200 American travelers asking about their readiness to travel. And the collective readiness was astounding, as I said, almost everyone is planning to travel this year.
So, I wrote about it.
Read more: Summer Vacation Forecast: Air Travel Confidence Building, but Road Trips Still Reign
Talk about whetting my (travel) appetite. As many of you know, I’m an avid traveler. When I’m not traveling, I’m writing about traveling. When I’m not writing about traveling, I’m talking about traveling (sometimes to myself, which is really the same thing as writing). Pre-COVID, I aimed to travel as far and frequently as possible—and through writing about travel, I hoped to encourage others to do the same.
Enter COVID. [record scratch] That was the sound of travel grinding to a halt. And then we all know what came after that.
So now, a year later, I’m encouraged by the news—and ever-increasing prospect—of a return to travel.
Besides how travelers plan to go (road trips for summer, flights later in the year) and why (taking a vacation followed by visiting family and friends—yep, same!), I found the reasons for increasing air travel confidence to tell the most compelling story.
That is, people are encouraged by the news around vaccines. 59% of travelers said news about the progress of the vaccine made them more likely to book travel. (Just 8% of travelers said a vaccine would not change their willingness to travel.)
Airlines’ and airports’ health and safety procedures matter a lot, too. 54% of travelers said airlines having procedures in place to reduce infection spread, such as mask requirements, reduced capacity on flights, sanitation procedures, and temperature checks, help them feel more comfortable flying. 50% said airport procedures—that is, social distancing guidelines, touchless check-in procedures, mask requirements, and sanitation procedures—also play a big role.
All of these data points to say: This collective confidence is making me feel confident we’ll be able to travel again, like we used to, sometime soon(ish). We’ll be able to take much-needed vacations, we’ll be able to see (and hug!) family and friends we haven’t seen in a year or more, and we’ll be able to once again feel the thrill of landing in a faraway place with the intention—and readiness—to explore.
Are you feeling ready to travel? Where will you go (when the time is right)?
Supplemental reading: My reporting and analysis was also featured in AFAR (woo!) and Las Vegas Review-Journal (*cue Elvis*).