You might not remember John Howard of CouponLawn.com, he shared a great guest post in early June regarding Father’s Day Gifts! You can see that post here.
CouponLawn.com has conducted a study of the effect of Covid-19 on travel habits. While the serious uptick in Covid-19 cases has had a significant impact on the habits and lives of the American public, this study is well-worth reading because it covers so many aspects of the pandemic as well as the travel habits of people in general.
Because I think this topic is extremely important and I think people should have some insights into what this survey revealed, I am featuring this post only today. Tomorrow I will be back to featuring 2 posts, but this contributed article is really something to think about!!
Stevie Wilson
COVID -19 Impacts on Travel Habits:
New Study of 1045 U.S Travelers
As of May 26, 2020, the total number of coronavirus cases reached over 5.5 million worldwide, with the U.S. being the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, representing 1.7 million of the total number of COVID-19 cases.
Since it first emerged in Wuhan, China last December 2019, countries implemented total partial or complete lockdown and travel restrictions which made a huge dent in the travel industry. The damage is so huge that it was estimated by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) that there will be over 100 million job losses in the travel and tourism sector.
Moreover, the 2020 tourism industry revenue is restated to 447 million U.S. dollars, down from the original 2020 forecast, which is 711 million U.S. dollars. In 2019, the travel tourism industry revenue earned 685 million U.S. dollars in revenue.
It’s been over 5 months now, so how are the US travelers holding up? We conducted a survey involving 1,045 US frequent travelers to see the impact COVID-19 has on travel habits.
Demographics
We specifically asked our survey participants to indicate their age so we can see which generation travelers belong to.
Major Takeaways:
- It was found that 578 (55.3%) of the survey takers were Millennials, those aged between 24-37 years old. This is followed by 276 (26.4%) of Gen X, people aged between 38-56 years old.
- 116 (11.1%) of the survey takers were Gen Z or those aged younger, between 16-23 years old while there are only 75 (7.2%) of Baby Boomers or those aged between 57-64 years old.
Do you have travel plans that were canceled due to COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2020?
Major Takeaways:
- According to 905 (86.6%) of the survey participants (more than 50% were Millennials), they did have travel plans set in Q1 of 2020 but were canceled because of the coronavirus.
- Only 140 (13.4%) of the survey participants had travel plans set in Q1 of 2020 that were not canceled because of the COVID-19.
Do you have travel plans in the upcoming months of 2020?
Major Takeaways:
- US citizens take 93 million international outbound trips each year. After the outbreak, 802 (76.7%) of our survey takers confirmed they have travel plans in the upcoming months of 2020.
- 243 (23.3%) of survey takers have no other travel plans in the upcoming months of 2020.
Have you booked any tickets for traveling in the upcoming months of 2020?
Major Takeaways:
- 612 (58.6%) of the survey participants confirmed they did book any tickets for traveling in the upcoming months of 2020.
- Almost half or 433 (41.4%) of the participants didn’t book any more tickets for traveling in the following months of 2020.
Amid COVID-19, will deals and discounts on traveling such as plane tickets and hotels encourage you to travel in the upcoming months of 2020?
Major Takeaways:
- Airfare sales have dropped significantly since the outbreak. Due to the drop in demand, airline companies had to make a move fast. This is why you’ll notice that there’s an average of 14% drop in US airfares since the first week of March.
- Even though people are highly advised to stay at home, 723 (69.2%) of the participants stated that they are encouraged to consider traveling in the upcoming months of 2020 because of these price drops while 322 (30.8%) aren’t encouraged at all.
Amid COVID-19, why are you still thinking of traveling?
Major Takeaways:
- Even though most of the countries worldwide are on either partial or full lockdown, there are still people who choose to travel despite the serious threat. According to 434 (41.5%) of the participants, they travel so they can visit their loved ones/family.
- While 228 (21.8%) of the survey participants do so for work/study purposes, 332 (31.8%) travel for their hobby as an adventurer despite the serious threat of catching the virus.
- Only about 50 (4.8%) travel for other reasons.
Are you willing to follow strict safety protection/protocol while traveling amid COVID-19?
Since the coronavirus outbreak, the thought of traveling seems impossible to happen anytime soon. But earlier in May 2020, Australia announced a three-stage plan to reopen its economy, including tourism, which could be a travel recovery model for other countries.
Are people willing to follow strict protocols/protection while traveling amid the COVID-19 outbreak these days?
Major Takeaways:
- According to 1000 (95.7%) of the survey takers, they would follow and take precautionary measures to keep themselves safe while traveling by putting on face masks, practice social distancing, washing hands and using hand sanitizers regularly.
- The remaining 45 (4.3%) just don’t care at all and would take zero precautionary measures while traveling amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Will you adjust your travel budget after COVID-19?
By the end of March 2020, over 3 million unemployment claims were filed. This means the budget will have to be cut deeply to still be able to travel and keep up with the essentials amid the global pandemic.
Major Takeaways:
- But according to 374 (35.8%) of survey participants, they are not going to make any adjustments and just keep it the same.
- Only 110 (10.5%) of survey participants will increase their travel budget after COVID-19 compared to 561 (53.7%) of the survey participants that will tighten their budget instead after the COVID-19 outbreak.
Do you think travel bans/restrictions will help with the attempt of stopping the spread of Coronavirus?
Major Takeaways:
- Survey participants were asked if travel bans or restrictions will help limit or stop the spread of coronavirus and according to 145 (13.9%) of survey participants, these won’t help and do not make sense to them.
- Most of the survey-takers (77.9%) agree that this will help as long as people follow the rules while 8.2% of them are neutral about this statement.
After COVID-19, will you prefer virtual travel over physical travel?
According to the World Economic Forum, “We will travel again, but it will not be the same”. So we asked our participants which type of travel platform would they prefer after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Major Takeaways:
- While 189 (18.1%) of the survey participants preferred virtual travel because it’s more budget-friendly than having to physically travel, 802 or 76.7% would rather travel physically as they believe that virtual travel will never be as awesome as being there physically.
- Only 117 (11.2%) of them said they would prefer virtual travel because it’s convenient.
Methodology and Limitations
To ensure that the above-mentioned data is only from frequent travelers in the U.S., we launched a survey on MTurk and set the qualifications to only U.S. citizens that travel frequently.
We also included attention-check questions somewhere in the survey to ensure our participants are not just answering the survey questions randomly.
Also, the survey’s results do not, in any form and way, reflect the opinions of our editors and writers.
Fair Use Statement
The data and findings in this article are available for non-commercial reuse.
If you know someone who would benefit from this survey, we highly encourage you to share this project with them. All that we ask if for you is to link back to this page so the efforts of our writers are properly credited.
Thanks to John Howard – founder of Couponlawn.com– for providing LA-Story.com this really detailed article. This is an extremely insightful survey and the results are rather eye-opening! Given the amount of work that this survey took, this would be worth sharing with friends and family who are thinking about summer and fall travel.
If you have questions or comments, you can post them to this specific article OR you could contact John Howard – founder of Couponlawn.com directly via the website!
Note:
Here is some content that might be useful if you are traveling to airports or even to a relatively close destination, you might want to take a limo because the number of people in the car is limited to your party and the driver. Also a limo can often get you to destination faster than taking a shuttle bus or driving your own car because the limo driver will drop you close to your terminal. If you want to find limos no matter where you are located please try this company: Limo Find (https://www.limofind.com). This company has offices across the US. You can even rent buses and other types of vehicles for events so that you can be fairly certain that your group won’t be ill and you will get to your destination on time.
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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