COVID-19 Travel Sentiment Study-Wave 5

Coronavirus Impact on Future U.S. Travel Appears to Plateau but Still Dominates Travel Planning by Americans

April 14, 2020-The impact of the global pandemic continues to wreak havoc on travel planning by Americans. According to a Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers and the coronavirus pandemic, 85% of them are changing their travel plans for the next six months because of coronavirus, about the same percentage reported the last two weeks.  Changing trips from international to domestic and from air travel to auto travel continue to occur but were less frequent than in previous weeks.

The survey, supported by Miles Partnership, was fielded April 8, 2020 using a national sample randomly drawn from a consumer panel of 1,000 adults, ages 18 and over.  Quotas were used to match Census targets for age, gender, and region to make the survey representative of the U. S. population.

One bright spot in the survey results, the percentage of American travelers planning trips in the next six months rose slightly for the first time in four weeks, from 65% a week ago to 70% at the time of this survey, but still far below the 87% planning trips a month ago.  The coronavirus pandemic continues to be a more significant factor affecting U.S. travel in the next six months, compared with concerns about the economy and transportation costs.   

Of the travelers surveyed, 66% of them indicated that the coronavirus pandemic would “greatly impact” their decision to travel in the next six months, virtually unchanged from last week and up from 35% four weeks ago.   The travel information of most interest to consumers at the time of this survey include local food delivery and take-out options (50%), ways to help local businesses and organizations impacted by the pandemic (49%) and deals and offers for future travel, dining and entertainment (49%).
 

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