Miami Beach, Florida
Artur Debate | Moment | Getty Images
Interest in travel is growing as the pandemic subsides, and incarcerated Americans are dying to get back on the streets, according to two recent polls.
Travelers are thinking about booking trips to warm and sunny climes – be it cities in the sunbelt or beaches and national parks – and are also more open to planning trips abroad.
Separate surveys by the websites Booking.com and Skyscanner, which worked with loyalty platform Braze and app intelligence provider Apptopia, found that Las Vegas, Miami and Orlando, Florida are among the most popular travel destinations for potential US vacationers be searched online.
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Mark Crossey, US travel expert at Skyscanner, said Americans are looking for short domestic trips – 87% of trips booked on the site are for a week or less – and prefer locations with fewer pandemic restrictions.
“Both Florida and Nevada no longer have visitor travel restrictions and California expects its restrictions to be lifted soon,” he said. “All of these destinations enjoy warm summer weather and offer many activities for people to enjoy after a quiet year.”
Crossey said he expects Americans to continue traveling in their own backyard through 2021 and expects “a resurgence of overseas travel once international travel restrictions are relaxed and popular European destinations reopen”.
Skyscanner, Braze, and Apptopia’s top 5 destinations are actually all cities: Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. Everyone but LA and the Big Apple made it to Booking.com’s own list of top 10 summer travel destinations, which included coastal locations like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Ocean City, Maryland. The website’s survey found that 61% of people plan on walking in the sand sometime this summer.
Booking.com’s top 10 summer travel searches
Here are the 10 most searched for domestic destinations in the US in May for check-in in July and August:
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Orlando Florida
- Destin, Florida
- Panama City Beach, Florida
- Ocean City, Maryland
- Miami Beach, Florida
- Miami, Florida
- Key West, Florida
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
Source: Booking.com
“New research from Booking.com shows that Americans want to get away this summer, and more specifically, a majority (62%) are optimistic that when it is safe to go to the beach again,” said Leslie Cafferty, senior vice president President and Head of Global Communications at Booking Holdings.
“With nearly 70% of Americans wanting to travel closer to home, it’s no surprise that US destinations like Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Miami, Ocean City and Destin were among the most searched for vacations on Booking.com in May. in dates within 90 days. “
Like Skyscanner, Booking.com found that Americans now prefer shorter trips. 54% of respondents said they would prefer more short breaks to less longer stays. 61 percent also said, according to Booking.com, that travel is “critical to your emotional wellbeing”.
This agrees with the results of the Skyscanner-Braze-Apptopia survey, which asked not only Americans, but also people in the Europe-Middle-East-Africa and Asia-Pacific regions. Sarah Spivey, chief marketing officer at Braze, said that prior to Covid, 75% of US travelers said they care about vacations.
“This pre-pandemic importance reflects US consumers’ desire to travel when restrictions are lifted,” she said, noting that 33% of Americans are comfortable traveling, compared to 13% of Asia-Pacific and 20% of the Central European countries residents of East Africa. “While consumers from other regions seem more cautious, Americans are happy to travel.”
Spivey said the increased readiness in the US compared to other major markets is also reflected in increased use of online travel agency apps. The use of such smartphone apps has increased by 41% compared to times before Covid.
“The contrast between US [app] Usage than in Europe and Asia is due to an overall greater willingness to travel and subsequently to a stronger recovery in the travel industry, “she said.
