A Survey of American Generations
2,000 Americans – an equal quantity of Baby Boomers, Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z – share their prime journey considerations, how a lot COVID-19 fears are affecting their urge for food to journey, their largest concern when planning a visit, how typically they hope to get away this yr, and extra.
At Avail, we surveyed a complete of 2,000 would-be vacationers, an equal quantity from every technology, to raised perceive how COVID-19 and two years of journey restrictions have affected their need to journey now and in the close to future. The survey uncovered many similarities (and fewer variations) between the 4 generations, in addition to a handful of fascinating tendencies.
Our examine revealed what number of Americans are going to journey for leisure, if COVID-19 fears nonetheless exist, what their journey plans are for 2022, and what number of journeys they plan on taking. We uncovered insights about spontaneous journey and checked out leisure journey price range parameters for 2022.
We investigated rental automobile points and located that each one 4 cohorts have the identical complaints concerning the rental automobile market. We additionally found that our vacationers are receptive to newer travel-related companies in the sharing financial system, comparable to automobile sharing, that provide an modern various to conventional choices.
Finally, we sought to know how the Russian invasion of Ukraine would possibly have an effect on individuals’s urge for food for worldwide journey in 2022.
Now, let’s check out the outcomes.
Summary of Key Findings
- Gen-Zers anticipate spending large on journey this year- greater than some other generation-with 72% saying they plan to spend extra, or the identical, in 2022 than pre-COVID-19 instances.
- Gen-Zers (71%) and Millennials (71%) paved the way with regards to planning to journey extra, or the identical quantity, in 2022 than pre-pandemic.
- 69% of all Americans plan to journey extra, or the identical quantity, in 2022 than previous to the pandemic.
- 60% of all Americans traveled much less throughout COVID-19 than they did earlier than the pandemic started.
- 82% of Baby Boomers, 75% of Gen-Xers, and 73% of each Gen-Zers and Millennials plan to take between 1 to five journeys for enjoyable in the approaching yr.
- Baby Boomers had been revealed to be probably the most spontaneous vacationers, with 64% saying they anticipate reserving journeys 1 month or much less in advance.
- Gen-Zers, Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers all agree that staying inside price range is probably the most difficult half of journey planning.
- As far as automobile rental prices are involved, Gen-Zers, Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers all say, “It’s just too expensive.”
- 72% of Gen-Zers plan to or will take into account splurging on an enormous journey in 2022, adopted by Millennials (68%), Gen-Xers (60%), and Baby Boomers (51%).
- Seeing household and buddies beat out cheaper journey choices because the number-one motivating issue for Gen-Zers, Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers to make a journey.
- All Americans agree that cash is the largest limiting issue with regard to touring for leisure in 2022 – greater than two instances extra limiting than security and well being considerations.
- 76% of all Americans both really feel impartial or agree that the provision of vaccinations has elevated their degree of consolation with journey – Millennials (77%) and Baby Boomers (77%) are most snug as a result of of vaccines.
- Just 31% of all Americans say that COVID-19 fears would scare them away from touring for leisure in 2022 – Baby Boomers (27%) and Gen-Xers (28%) are the least deterred by COVID-19 points.
- 69% of all Americans say that the present state of struggle between Russia and Ukraine can be a serious purpose they keep away from worldwide journey in 2022.
Read on for the complete evaluation of our survey and the insights we uncovered.
COVID-19’s Travel Impact & Planning for 2022
COVID-19 has clearly disrupted world journey. During peak COVID-19, airport safety line wait instances elevated dramatically, as even a 5:30 a.m. flight required vacationers to reach on the airport two hours earlier than departure time. The cruise ship trade utterly suspended operations for the higher half of a yr, and even land journey on trains and buses was affected by decreased capability and cancellations.
Throughout the pandemic, although, all surveyed teams nonetheless needed to journey.
And for a lot of, the times of infinite work and no play are gone – pandemic or not.
Catching COVID-19 on a airplane appears to be a debatable concern, however COVID-19 fears nonetheless concern many would-be vacationers. Since we first needed to establish 2022 travel-plan eventualities, we requested Gen-Z, Millennials, Gen-X, and Baby Boomers “Which of the following best describes how much you plan to travel for leisure in 2022 if there are fewer COVID-19 restrictions in place?”
We discovered all 4 generational teams strongly able to pack and play in 2022. 71% of each Millennials and Gen-Zers, 69% of Baby Boomers, and 65% of Gen-Xers say they plan to journey extra or a minimum of the identical quantity than they did pre-pandemic. Averaging the 4 teams collectively, greater than two-thirds of all Americans are able to journey now – a major quantity.
Having understood what our survey respondents are planning for 2022, we requested about their journey habits through the top of COVID-19, from 2020-2021.
Those who reported no change in their previous leisure touring way of life stacked up like this:
- 23% of Gen-Z responders
- 20% of each Millennials and Baby Boomers
- 16% of Gen-Xers
Then who traveled extra? Gen-Z did, with 26% packing their baggage extra typically through the pandemic than previous to it. Millennials weren’t far behind, with 25% saying that they’d elevated leisure journey. 20% of Gen-Xers elevated their journey through the pandemic, whereas Baby Boomers had been probably the most conservative, as solely 11% traveled extra.
Finally, though a quantity of individuals traveled much less for leisure in 2020-2021 (70% of Baby Boomers, 65% of Gen-Xers, 56% of Millennials, and simply over half – 51% – of Gen-Zers), our survey reveals {that a} good quantity of respondents throughout generational strains continued touring and/or elevated their leisure journey actions throughout that point interval.
Top Travel Concerns for 2022 & Beyond
Vaccines had been a COVID-19 breakthrough, and we needed to know whether or not the provision of vaccines made individuals really feel extra snug with the concept of journey.
Again, we discovered settlement amongst all of our teams, as 77% of each Millennials and Baby Boomers agree or are impartial about elevated journey consolation on account of vaccines. 75% of Gen-Z respondents really feel the identical, and nearly three-quarters – 73% – of Gen-Xers lean towards elevated journey consolation on account of vaccine availability.
Since vaccines are useful in subduing COVID-19 fears, we couldn’t assist however ask the query: “Does COVID-19 still scare you, and will that fear keep you from traveling for leisure again in 2022?”
It actually appears as if COVID-19 fears are dwindling among the many American inhabitants. Just 27% of Baby Boomers report that COVID-19 might preserve them from touring in 2022, adopted by 28% of Gen-Xers, 32% of Gen-Zers, and 35% of Millennials. Overall, journey appears to be again, with simply a median of 31% of all Americans citing COVID-19 fears as potential causes for not touring in 2022.
We then drilled down additional to pinpoint precisely what probably the most prevalent journey considerations are for every generational group.
Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers are most fearful about being in massive crowds. Gen-Z and Millennials answered extra particularly, as their essential concern is COVID-19 an infection. Baby Boomers could also be much less fearful about straight contracting COVID-19 as a result of the concept of touring “before it’s too late” is top-of-mind, and though Gen-Xers are usually not as previous as Baby Boomers, they could really feel the identical means.
Travel is a vital half of many individuals’s lives, however plans may be derailed by world occasions which might be past our management – struggle, for instance. And as talked about, we queried our generational teams concerning the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and requested respondents to touch upon the next assertion:
“The current state of war between Russia and Ukraine will be a major reason that I do NOT travel internationally in 2022.”
Here, we didn’t see an excessive amount of generational fluctuation, as 63% of Gen-Xers, 70% of Gen-Z members, 71% of Baby Boomers, and 73% of Millennials all agree that the Russia/Ukraine struggle may affect their worldwide journey plans.
A Return to Normalcy in the Travel-Planning World
There are a number of facets of journey planning, from researching transportation and lodging, to discovering distinctive experiences and reserving excursions. We puzzled how enthusiastic individuals are about these numerous actions, so we requested survey-takers to fee probably the most annoying half of the travel-planning course of on a scale from 1 to six – with 1 being probably the most annoying and 6 being the least. All generations really feel that their overriding concern is staying inside their calculated journey price range.
We had been additionally fairly curious concerning the quantity of leisure journeys our teams plan to take this yr. The majority of all 4 generational teams anticipate occurring trip 1-5 instances: 73% of each Millennials and Gen-Z; 75% of Gen-Xers; and 82% of Baby Boomers.
Despite the pandemic nonetheless being prime of thoughts in 2022 – on account of it being frequently reported on in the information and ongoing restrictions/necessities reminding us that we’ve not overcome COVID-19 – individuals are nonetheless desirous to journey and once more prepared to plan spontaneous journeys.
At the highest, 64% of Baby Boomers say that they might ebook journeys simply 1 month (or much less) in advance, adopted by 61% of Gen-Xers, and 58% of each Gen-Z and Millennial respondents. That stated, it’s potential that Baby Boomers are extra in a position to ebook spontaneous journey on account of being retired or having a extra versatile work scenario.
When requested about their motivation to journey, all generations rank seeing household and buddies as their primary purpose. Gen-Z, Millennials, and Baby Boomers rank cheaper journey because of this of COVID-19 as sixth, whereas Gen-Xers reveal a need to journey overseas.
Budgeting for Travel – Still a Top Priority for Americans
Many elements affect journey plans (security, time of yr, well being points, and so forth.), however probably the most conventional barrier – lack of enough journey funds – ran throughout all 4 generational teams.
Gen-Z, Millennials, Gen-X, and Baby Boomers all emphatically agree that cash is the largest concern affecting their journey plans. In reality, the associated fee of journey is considered as twice as essential as some other issue by all 4 teams.
Next, we needed to seek out out which technology is the largest spender. The information revealed {that a} higher quantity of youthful respondents would spend extra, or would take into account spending greater than they did earlier than the pandemic.
The information exhibits a spending decline throughout all generations, though one would possibly surmise that Baby Boomers would spend extra on journey as a result of they’ve extra assets, comparable to retirement funds or separate journey financial savings accounts.
Our findings present, nonetheless, that Baby Boomers are probably the most unlikely to spend, probably as a result of they’re reluctant to make use of hard-earned retirement funds for journey. Also, unsure instances can encourage conservative spending habits.
We tallied the share of every technology that claimed they are going to spend extra, or take into account spending extra, on journey as pandemic restrictions ease. This is the way it broke down:
We then took our queries a step additional and requested all teams in the event that they plan to splurge and go large on an enormous leisure tour in 2022. The generations lined up nearly precisely as above, with 72% of Gen-Z, 68% of Millennials, 60% of Gen-X, and 51% of Baby Boomers saying they anticipate spending large in 2022.
Again, Baby Boomers are the least prone to spend, and Gen-Z vows to spend most freely.
Americans Share Their Preferred Travel Methods in 2022
The analysis has revealed constructive indicators for the journey trade – individuals are clearly desirous to journey once more in 2022, however how do they plan to get to their last vacation spot?
We requested our teams to rank their consolation degree with numerous transportation choices (1 being most snug and 5 being least snug). What stood out is that all generations choose automobile journey over all different modes of transportation.
Here are the rankings in order of desire:
Car journey provides people extra management over who they share their house with, making it the transportation choice that gives probably the most peace of thoughts. Could there be any downsides? We puzzled if there was an overriding concern with automobile rental corporations. There actually was: All teams emphatically say that conventional automobile leases are too costly.
Coincidentally, automobile rental inflation has opened the door to the idea of automobile sharing.
Car-sharing corporations like Avail act as an middleman between automobile homeowners and automobile renters. For instance, as an alternative of going via the same old trouble and headache of renting, vacationers can use a car-sharing firm to borrow a automobile from an area. Travelers get to pick the precise automobile they wish to borrow, with out hidden charges or unwelcome surprises, and insurance coverage protection is included.
This is a win-win, as automobile debtors get extra management and peace of thoughts, whereas automobile homeowners are in a position to earn passive earnings. Many individuals throughout generations are taking benefit of this new and easy-to-use service.
Wrapping It Up
The COVID-19 pandemic will not be having as drastic an affect on our day by day lives, however the struggle in Ukraine has rapidly added a brand new layer of concern for vacationers throughout generational teams.
Some teams, comparable to Baby Boomers, are extra involved about price range points when planning journey, however much less fearful about catching COVID-19 on a airplane, practice, or bus.
All teams are enthusiastic about touring with fewer COVID-19 restrictions and most in seeing family and friends versus jetting off to a faraway trip paradise.
Our prime takeaways?
Staying inside price range is difficult, massive crowds nonetheless trouble segments of the inhabitants, and lots of have adopted automobile journey as their primary journey methodology. Gen-Z plans to spend extra because the pandemic winds down, whereas Baby Boomers are usually not so fast to commit extra funds to journey.
Rental automobiles are a thorn in the facet of many vacationers and, due to this fact, vacationers are open to attempting modern platforms, like car-sharing, this yr.
Finally, the struggle in Ukraine is regarding to all generational teams and should deter individuals from touring internationally.
There is pent-up demand to journey, and as pandemic fears reduce, we really feel that there can be a major upsurge in leisure journey throughout America.
For extra data on Avail’s analysis or to request graphics or an interview about this examine, please contact sam.radbil@availcarsharing.com.
SURVEY METHODOLOGY
All information discovered inside this report is derived from a survey by Avail carried out on-line through survey platform Pollfish from March 1-2, 2022. In complete, 2,000 grownup Americans had been surveyed, together with an equal quantity (500) from every technology – Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. The respondents had been discovered through Pollfish’s age filtering function. This survey was carried out over a two-day span, and all respondents had been requested to reply all questions as in truth as potential and to the perfect of their data and skills.