According to the latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers, the news of peaking and even declining new COVID-19 infections in some regions of the U.S. is restoring confidence in future travel.  The percentage of travelers planning trips in the next six months has risen to 91%, matching the highest level seen since the beginning of the pandemic almost two years ago.  A third of travelers now say that coronavirus will greatly impact their decision to travel in the next six months, down from two thirds of travelers back in April 2020.

“As the omicron variant begins to tail off in parts of the country, travelers hope they are seeing light at the end of the tunnel,” said Amir Eylon, President and CEO of Longwoods International.  “As the news on the status of the pandemic gets better, we expect the pace of recovery for the travel and tourism industry to continue to improve.”

Travelers are very conscious of the hardships suffered by local businesses and organizations throughout the pandemic.  More than half of them have purchased takeout food and beverage from locally-owned restaurants, cafés and breweries, and a just under half of them have dined in at those locally-owned establishments.

The survey, supported by Miles Partnership, was fielded January 19, 2022 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.