Summer is here! Let’s be honest, as soon as we felt the crisp bite of 50 degree temperatures, we dragged our shorts and flip flops out of hibernation and braved the ‘warmth’. The arrival of the summer months not only brings about nicer weather, but also brings summer travel. Summer is a time for adults and families to break away from their daily madness and unwind with a getaway to somewhere else.
Other travel trends include:
- Almost 60% of travelers claim to exceed their summer getaway budget every year - even when they try to plan ahead for savings.
- 46% prefer taking frequent weekend trips instead of one long vacation.
- While weekend trips are favored, consumers are saving their time off for non-holiday weekends due to reasons such as higher than normal costs (30%) and traffic (47%). For those that still enjoy the holiday travel, one-fourth (25%) think Independence Day is the best summer holiday for traveling, followed by Memorial Day (11%) and Labor Day (10%).
- 37% of travelers, who work full time, save their vacation days for the summer time.
- For overnight stays, 57% of travelers choose to stay in a hotel. Other accommodation choices include staying with family or friends (27%) or through online services such as AirBnB (6%) and bed and breakfast (6%).
The traveling season has commenced and we can look to see how these trends prove true in our unique areas of business. This data presents marketing opportunities for weekend destinations to capitalize on the summer traveler and present them with information that will help win their visit.
Janie Augsburger, CTA
Account Executive, Travel & Tourism at The Columbus Dispatch.
Contact Janie Augsburger for help with advertising and marketing your travel or tourism services. You can reach her at jaugsburger@dispatch.com or 614-461-8804.
