Survey: 3 Out of 5 Americans Plan to Travel This Summer

Even more, is what they’re willing to give up for travel. 

To date, more than 52 million Americans have been vaccinated. At this rate, nearly three times as many plans to travel once the summer months hit.

Nearly 68 percent of respondents to a survey from travel news site the Vacationer said they plan on traveling next season. What’s more interesting, one out of four said they’re going to travel more than before the global health crisis.

“Over the last year, there has been much discussion about ‘revenge travel,'” said Eric Jones, co-founder of The Vacationer. “That is people have restrained their travel desires so much during the pandemic that they intend to ‘make up for it’ as soon as they can.”

How much are they willing to travel as soon as they can?

Desperate to leave home

The extremes some respondents would go to for travel are both humorous and enlightening for the hospitality industry. More than 62 percent of 157 million responded to what they’d do or forgo to travel safely again.

“We set out to analyze how strong the desire for travel was right now,” Jones said. “With most people cooped up recently, what would they sacrifice to travel safely and normally right now?”

The answer was quite a bit more than you’d expect…

• Spend a night in prison: 16.79%
• Not see your best friend for a year: 22.01%
• Not eat your favorite food for a year: 24.25%
• Stop exercising for a year: 23.13%
• Go without sex for a year:  18.10%
• None of these: 38.25%

The Vacationer’s survey results show signs of a potential travel boom this summer. The Gem recently reported the pandemic set the hotel industry back a decade.

Between these results and a recent boost of 36,000 new jobs in the hotel industry, this could be the end of a historically bad year. And beginning of the rebuilding period after COVID.