Perhaps signaling good news for a tired tourism industry, according to our latest VeraQuest study, most Americans plan to take a significant amount of time off this summer, and go (maybe not very far) away but at least away.
Specifically, about 2 in 3 (67%) of Americans are planning to take a leisure trip this summer, even though most of those haven’t done any of the actual planning yet.
- As of April of this year, 31% of Americans (more women and younger adults under age 40) had already made their summer vacation plans.
That said, we surely aren’t the nation to work in if you like to take a lot of vacation, come summer time. In 2012, Americans received 12 total vacation days compared to 25-30 for Europeans. And this summer on average, Americans anticipate spending 11 days on vacation – which would indicate somewhere between one to two weeks max of work days. By contrast, only 7% of Americans anticipate taking more than 24 days off this summer.
- Adults on either end of the age spectrum (ages 18-29 and 65+) anticipate slightly longer summer vacations, perhaps because they are not tied down by the same family and work commitments.
According to our data, the most common use of precious vacation time is to relax – by far, the #1 reason why Americans go away (46%). That said, a hefty percentage of Americans (24%), more old than young, are cerebral or intellectual travelers, taking a trip to learn, explore, or see the sights. And, about 1 in 10 (11%) of Americans seek adventure when they take a leisure trip – no surprise more young than old.
Interestingly, while most Americans are planning a break from their daily grind over the summer, most aren’t expecting to go that far away – only 13% are planning to travel outside the country. And, the vast majority anticipate either staying inside their state (34%) or within their region of the country, even if outside their state (44%).
Do you think this signals good or bad news for the travel and tourism industry? If you could plan any trip right now for July of this year, where would you go and what would you do?
Leave a Reply