According to the latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers, the drop in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus is boosting confidence in present and future travel. Only 27% of travelers report the pandemic would greatly affect their travel in the next six months, down from 36% in early September. And the percentage who changed their upcoming travel plans due to COVID-19 fell from 59% two months ago to 48% in the latest survey.

“The latest numbers from our U.S. traveler research are encouraging,” said Amir Eylon, President and CEO of Longwoods International.  “As we have seen throughout the pandemic, traveler sentiment tends to track closely with the perceived state of the virus throughout the country – the more progress made against COVID-19, the stronger the demand for and confidence in travel.”

Despite the improvement in traveler sentiment, attitudes about traveling during the upcoming holidays remain mixed. Two-thirds of American travelers are fully or partially vaccinated. However, they are evenly split about holiday travel – half have no hesitations about traveling this holiday season, while the other half does. Meanwhile, a third of travelers aren’t vaccinated. Among them, two-thirds have no hesitancy about holiday travel, while a third do.

The survey, supported by Miles Partnership, was fielded October 13, 2021 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.