NEEDHAM, Mass., June 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new travel trends
research paper released today by Tripadvisor®, the
world's largest travel guidance platform*, reveals that vaccine
rollouts globally are driving increasing demand for summer
vacations, with vaccinated travelers more likely to stay longer and
spend more on their trips than unvaccinated travelers.
The report, entitled 'A Shot in The Arm for Travel? Examining
the Vaccine's Impact on Leisure Travel Demand', provides a unique
insight into emerging travel planning trends around the world by
combining behavioral analysis of Tripadvisor's first-party search
data - revealing the type of trips travelers are actively
researching on the world's largest travel platform - with consumer
sentiment analysis gathered via traveler surveys in six major
international markets, exploring the latest in traveler attitudes
and confidence.
The report identifies clear behavioral differences in how
vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers are thinking about travel,
and how that is translating into travel planning behaviors on the
Tripadvisor platform, with vaccinated travelers more likely to be
booking vacations already, and to be planning to stay longer and
spend more when they travel.
In countries like the U.S. and the UK, where the vaccination
rollout has reached large swathes of the adult population, eager
travelers are pushing the tourism recovery forward. At the other
end of the spectrum, countries where the vaccine rollout is at a
less advanced stage and new variants of Covid-19 have impacted
local populations - particularly across the Asia-Pacific region - are experiencing a
slower recovery in leisure travel demand.
"Higher income millennial travelers were driving the demand for
leisure travel this past spring, but heading into the summer the
age demographic of travelers now booking up vacations has broadened
significantly, at least in countries where large populations have
been vaccinated," said Stephen
Kaufer, CEO and co-founder, Tripadvisor, Inc. "If ever we
needed proof that vaccines are the key to long-term recovery in the
tourism sector, our latest trend data provides it. Now the focus
must be on governments and international organizations to ensure
vaccines reach every part of the world as quickly as possible and
make it as easy as possible for vaccinated tourists to travel
globally once again."
Key findings from the report include:
1. The vaccine has a significant
impact on the demand for accommodations. Countries where the pace
of the vaccination rollout is more advanced, like the U.S. and UK,
are powering near-term growth in tourism demand, while a more muted
recovery picture emerges across the Asia-Pacific region:
- Half (51%) of U.S. respondents plan on taking a summer vacation
somewhere in the U.S, and nearly a quarter (22%) plan on taking a
summer vacation abroad.
- U.S. weekly hotel search volumes continue to mirror sentiment
trends. In the first week of May
2021, hotel searches were at a higher level than at any
stage since the start of the pandemic.
- Elsewhere, since the turn of the year, the UK, Spain, Italy,
Germany and France have all seen significant growth in
hotel search traffic on Tripadvisor, while in Australia - which is heading into its winter
months - the recovery in search traffic has been largely flat.
- Vaccinated travelers are a key driver of demand - when
surveyed, a third (32%) of vaccinated travelers globally said they
had booked a domestic vacation, of whom eighty percent (80%) agreed
that the vaccine had been a factor in their decision to book. By
comparison, less than a fifth (19%) of unvaccinated travelers had
already booked a domestic trip.
- Among those yet to be vaccinated, nearly half (48%) of those
planning a domestic trip are waiting to receive at least one dose
of the vaccine before booking.
2. Vaccine rollouts are also
offering a boost to dining and experiences:
- In the first week of May 2021,
weekly U.S. restaurant searches on Tripadvisor were at a higher
volume than at any stage since the pandemic began and experience
searches were already close to last year's summer peak.
- The UK, France and
Italy all experienced an upwards
spike in restaurant searches on Tripadvisor in April, with dining
searches there outpacing traffic volumes at the same stage in
2020.
- Among vaccinated travelers surveyed globally, forty-one percent
(41%) said they feel more confident to dine indoors, a quarter
(25%) feel more confident to visit a museum, and twenty-three
percent (23%) feel more confident to visit a theme park.
3. Domestic tourism is dominating
travel planning searches for the peak season ahead, but for trips
further out travelers are already actively planning international
travel:
- In the first week of May, travelers planning summer vacations
on Tripadvisor were overwhelmingly searching for domestic vacations
- seventy-five (75%) of June vacation searches globally were for
domestic destinations, as well as sixty-seven (67%) of searches for
July trips and sixty-two percent (62%) of those looking to get away
in August.
- However, for trips planned later in the year, international
hotel searches on Tripadvisor made up the majority of trips planned
from November 2021 onwards.
4. The urban tourism revival is in
full swing! City destinations are re-emerging as the trip of choice
for vaccinated travelers:
- Of those vaccinated travelers planning to vacation in 2021,
nearly a third (32%) say they feel more confident about visiting an
urban center as a result of receiving at least one dose of the
vaccine.
- More than a third (35%) of vaccinated respondents in the U.S.
are planning a city vacation in 2021, compared to less than a
quarter (24%) of unvaccinated U.S. respondents. In fact, the top
five most searched destinations in the U.S. on Tripadvisor (based
on site queries in the first week of May
2021) included markets like New
York City, Orlando and
Las Vegas.
5. On average, vaccinated
travelers plan to spend more and vacation longer than other
travelers:
- Globally, twenty-two percent (22%) of respondents plan to take
a longer trip than they would have done pre-pandemic, rising to
nearly a third (30%) of vaccinated respondents.
- During the first week of May, nearly half (46%) of all
international accommodation searches on Tripadvisor were for stays
lasting six days or more.
- Globally, more than a third (35%) of vaccinated travelers
surveyed plan to spend more on their next trip compared to what
they spent on travel prior to the pandemic, while only a fifth
(20%) of those yet to receive the vaccine plan to do so.
- In the U.S. overall, forty percent (40%) of travelers surveyed
say they plan to spend more on their next trip.
"After such a turbulent year, many in tourism are hopeful that a
busy summer will provide a much-needed boost to the tourism
industry, so it's welcome news to see the latest traveler data
pointing in that direction, especially for destinations and
hospitality businesses that are able to capture the growing demand
for domestic vacations," said Christopher
Hsi, head of market research, Tripadvisor. "What offers even
greater hope for a long-term recovery is the impact the vaccine is
having not just on people's confidence to travel, but also their
willingness to turn planning into bookings. As more and more
countries make progress on the rollout of the vaccine, and the
positive impact that should have on the re-opening of international
borders, there is every reason to expect further growth in traveler
demand will come."
You can read the report in full here:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/TravelTrendsReportJune2021
NOTES TO EDITOR
The data cited in this release was gathered and analyzed from
two key sources:
- A Tripadvisor Consumer Sentiment Survey, based on data drawn
from an online survey of 2,413 consumers per survey, in partnership
with Qualtrics, conducted between April 23,
2021 - April 30, 2021 across
six countries - U.S., U.K., Australia, Italy, Singapore and Japan.
- Site behavioral data sourced from first party traffic data on
the Tripadvisor platform, gathered between May 4, 2020 - May 9,
2021
Other recent studies released by Tripadvisor include:
- 'The Year of the Travel Rebound: 5 Traveler Trends to Watch
Out for in 2021,' the full report can be read in full, for
free, here:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/InfoCenter-a_ctr.2021TravelTrends
- 'Beyond COVID-19: The Road to Recovery for the Travel
Industry,' the full report can be read in full, for free,
here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Covid19WhitepaperMay2020
- '2020 - A Year in Travel: Charting the Travel Industry's
Path to Recovery', the full report can be read, for free, here:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Covid19WhitepaperNovember2020
About Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor, the world's largest
travel guidance platform*, helps hundreds of millions of people
each month** become better travelers, from planning to booking to
taking a trip. Travelers across the globe use the Tripadvisor site
and app to discover where to stay, what to do and where to eat
based on guidance from those who have been there before. With more
than 887 million reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million
businesses, travelers turn to Tripadvisor to find deals on
accommodations, book experiences, reserve tables at delicious
restaurants and discover great places nearby. As a travel guidance
company available in 43 markets and 22 languages, Tripadvisor makes
planning easy no matter the trip type.
The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP), own and
operate a portfolio of online travel brands and businesses,
operating under various websites and apps, including the following
websites:
www.bokun.io, www.cruisecritic.com, www.flipkey.com,
www.thefork.com (including www.lafourchette.com,
www.eltenedor.com, www.bookatable.co.uk, and www.delinski.com),
www.helloreco.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.housetrip.com,
www.jetsetter.com, www.niumba.com, www.seatguru.com,
www.singleplatform.com, www.vacationhomerentals.com, and
www.viator.com.
* Source: SimilarWeb, unique users de-duplicated monthly,
March 2021
** Source: Tripadvisor internal log file
TRIP-G
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SOURCE Tripadvisor