A variety of marketing companies have been studying several different trends of opinions about travel in light of COVID-19. In the past few months we’ve seen studies about:
- in what parts of the countries hotels are getting more business
- the first place most Americans plan to visit when they can safely travel
- what airline prices are predicted to look like in the near future
- the difference in hotel occupancy rates for U.S. and Canadian hotels
Most of the studies give the generalizations of responses but rarely get into the nitty-gritty.
Until now.
A major public opinion polling organization has run several surveys concerning Americans’ views on COVID-19. One of their polls discussed when people would be willing to travel and they included the demographics of those who are eager to travel versus those who are willing to wait (and how long they plan to wait).
They divided the data based on travel intent, employment, income, and education. Four different groups emerged, ranging from those most eager to get back to traveling (dubbed “Eager Travelers”) to those who are OK with waiting until as far out as 2023 until they’re willing to travel (labeled “Holdouts”).
| Eager Travelers | Comfortable Retired | Cautious Retired | Holdouts | |
| Percent of sample | 40% | 37% | 12% | 11% |
| Employment status | 64% F/T | 45% retired | 56% retired | 46% unemployed |
| College degree | 50% yes | 52% yes | 59% no | 60% no |
| HH income | 51% $75K+ | 59% <$75K | 47% <$35K | 53% <$35K |
| Investable assets | 47% $50K+ | 56% $50K+ | 52% <$10K | 54% <$10K |
| Where they live | 44% urban | 79% suburban/rural | 75% suburban/rural | 70% suburban/rural |
| Travel frequency in past year | 3-4 leisure & 2-3 business trips | 2-3 leisure trips | 0-1 trips (non traveler) | 0-1 trips (non-traveler) |
| Plans to travel | 64% in 2020 (40% of which will travel for Memorial Day) | 61% in 2020 (7% of which will travel for Memorial Day) | 89% don’t plan to travel until 2023 | 70% don’t plan to travel until 2023 |
So-called “eager travelers” are people who traveled the most before the onset of coronavirus. They also tend to be younger and employed full time. “Eager travelers” earn more money and have more money to invest and spend. Nearly 2/3 of them would be willing to travel in 2020.
Participants in the “comfortable retired” and “cautious” retired seem to be mainly separated by income and how often they traveled before COVID-19.
Those who are currently unemployed and/or tended to not travel very much even before coronavirus are still the ones who are the least likely to travel.
Of course, income isn’t the only indicator of who will travel. Age is obviously playing a large role in whether or not people are willing to travel. That would account for the older individuals who don’t plan to travel at all until 2023, as well as only 7% of “comfortable retired” who were willing to travel during Memorial Day weekend of 2020. This would make sense, since although COVID-19 can have bad to horrible repercussions for anyone, older individuals tend to be at more risk for complications.
Feature Photo: Statemag.state.gov
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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