Travelers are seeking more meaning behind each vacation, rather than more vacations, according to MMGY Global’s 2018-2019 Portrait of American Travelers. The bad news here for hoteliers: it could mean Americans in all four generational categories will take up to six million fewer vacations in 2018 compared to 2017. This is the first time there has been a negative variance in intent to travel (nine point decrease) in the 12 years this question has been asked.
Spending, however, will hold steady into 2019, according to MMGY, as travelers value each trip more this year than in the past.
While all other generations indicate that their spending will be flat or less over the coming years, Millennials indicate an increase. Millennials also report the slightest drop in vacation intentions (3%) and Matures the largest (13%).
Millennial families intend to spend more on vacations in the coming year than they did in the previous year and more on leisure travel than their single or couple counterparts. Because of this, millennial families are an encouraging growth segment in an otherwise flat travel market.
The following are topline results from three research publications that will be released this year as part of the Portrait study. Although travel is flat for the year ahead, these are the segments to focus on with important spending power:
The trend of traveling for food is not going anywhere
Fully, 81% of travelers find experiencing local customs and cuisines on vacation desirable, and 70% of travelers are actually motivated to vacation to experience new cuisines.
In general, travelers are almost twice as interested in local, hard-to-find dishes (61%) on vacation than they are eating at Michelin starred restaurants (34%).
Culinary Explorers (14% of Americans) are defined as travelers extremely motivated to vacation for the chance of exploration and to experience new cuisines. They are spending more than $5,000 a year per household on travel, 16% higher than the overall travel intended spending average.
Of the top 10 cities Culinary Explorers are interested in visiting during the next two years, Honolulu, The Florida Keys, Washington, DC, New Orleans and Boston are included.
Wellness travelers go global, but need help to stay on track
Wellness Travelers make up 10% of all American travelers and are very motivated to pursue wellness programs/lifestyles while on vacation. This growing segment of approximately six million traveling households went on a combined 20.5 million vacations and spent US$27.1 billion on leisure travel during the past 12 months. Spending for this segment in 2018 is on the rise despite going on the same number of vacations, which could be tied to wellness traveler’s intended increase in international travel.
During the next 12 months, wellness travelers intend that 49% of their vacations will be international (compared to only 23% of all other travelers).
Fully, 34% of wellness travelers packed their workout clothes and shoes fully intending to exercise on vacation and didn’t. This provides an opening for travel service providers to help these travelers meet their goals.
Of the top 10 international countries wellness travelers are interested in visiting, Canada, Italy, France, U.S. Virgin Islands and Germany are included.
What you don’t expect from sharing economy travelers
These approximately 24.6 million traveling households represent 41% of traveling Americans and went on a combined 91.2 million vacations and spent US$132.1 billion on leisure travel during the past 12 months.
Despite popular belief, 41% of home sharing and 47% of ridesharing travelers are not millennials. Median age is 40 years old for home sharing travelers, and 41 years old for ride sharing travelers.
There may be concerns in ridesharing quality and experience as only 69% of current ridesharing travelers say they’re likely to use ride sharing again on vacation during the next 12 months (last year it was 88%, in 2016 it was 94%).
Similarly, 75% of current home sharing travelers intend to use home sharing again on vacation during the next 12 months whereas last year the likelihood to use a similar service was 86%, and in 2016 it was 90%.