Summer—otherwise known as peak travel season—is here. Over the last several years, summer travel trends have been somewhat erratic. It’s largely been due to various economic considerations, like unemployment and underemployment rates, increased saving due to lack of consumer confidence, and of course fluctuating travel-related costs. But for summer 2014, Americans are clearly preparing to spend more to get away on vacation for a little while.
Americans are openly acknowledging that summer travel will be more expensive this year than last, but they still intend to take their trips, even if it means laying out a bit more for them. American Express Travel surveyed 300 travel counselors and almost half said their bookings are up over last year’s. This in spite of 67 percent noting a definite rise in travel prices over 2013’s.
Experts say that this past particularly cold and snowy winter is a major force driving increased summer travel and associated spending this year. In fact, according to a survey by the National Association of Convenience Stores, 1 in 4 U.S. consumers said they intend to spend more on summer travel this year specifically because of the harsh winter they just dealt with. This appears to be the case especially among Midwesterners, 33 percent of whom said they’ll be spending more this summer because of their unpleasant winter experience.
Higher airfare and higher hotel rates are two primary reasons Americans will have to shell out more over the summer of 2014. Still, they’re looking to online bookings for convenience and in the hopes of scoring better rates.
Technology company Adobe estimates that online bookings will bring in $61 billion this summer, an increase of 15 percent over the previous year’s numbers. Airline reservations are the fastest growing sector, showing an annual rise of 28 percent.
On average, an American’s summer vacation lasts 10 days. Perennially favored domestic destinations like Orlando and New York and foreign destinations like Paris, London, and Rome remain leading destinations for summer travel in 2014, as the American Express Travel poll determined. Hawaii, San Francisco, San Diego, and Las Vegas are other enormously popular summer travel destinations year after year in the U.S., and this is no exception this summer.
Five cities, all of which are in Brazil, are currently showing the highest year-over-year increase in vacation bookings. They are Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Recife, Manaus, and Salvador. Other international destinations with leading spikes over last year’s bookings include Milan and Bucharest; Hilton Head, SC and Grand Junction, CO are the two national destinations showing the most significant growth over 2013.
Enjoy your summer travel, wherever it’s taking you!
Reference: http://www.usatoday.com/story/dispatches/2014/05/29/summer-travel-spending-forecast/9636671/
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Will you be one of the Americans shelling out more cash for vacation this year? What will you spend it on? Airfare? A hotel? What about a brand-new travel CPAP machine?
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