The State of the American Traveler November 2024

Fall Travel Rates, Holiday Travel Outlook, Movie Motivation, TikTok Still Rules GenZ

Date

Nov 12, 2024

Americans’ Financial and Travel Sentiments Remain Steady and Strong

Continuing the trends we have seen throughout 2024 to date, American travelers' financial status and outlook remains steady, with few shifts month-to-month. Currently, 32.9 percent of American travelers feel that their household is better off financially relative to a year ago, marking the 13th straight month of this metric at this level. Optimism about their financial future continues to be at just under half (48.1% of American travelers expect their household to be better off financially in the next year), although this sentiment is down about 4-points compared to last year.
In addition to a strong personal financial outlook, the proportion of American travelers’ anticipating an economic recession are at a historic low, even in an election year. This month, just 34.5 percent of American travelers said they anticipate a recession will occur in the next six months, down 18-points compared to the same time last year and 29- points lower than in 2022. In a similar vein, travel costs and gas prices as travel deterrents are also at 2-year lows (at 33.3% and 32.3%, respectively).
With the lessening impact of travel prices on travel sentiment and a stable personal financial outlook, Americans’ perception that now is a good time to spend on travel and that travel will be a high budget priority in the near-term are holding steady at 34.2 percent and 57.1 percent. Importantly, more than three-in-ten American travelers (31.4%) expect to spend more on travel in the next 12 months, on par with last month.
This expectation to spend more on travel is reflected in strong anticipated travel budgets - on average, American travelers have a maximum leisure travel budget of $5,697 for the next year, a 50.5 percent increase compared to the same time last year ($3,785).

Fall Travel Rates and What’s Ahead

Overnight leisure travel rates in the past month remained flat month-over-month, with 49.2 percent of American travelers reporting one or more overnight trips, up just +0.5 points from the previous month but up 2.7 points relative to last year. Interestingly, overnight travel rates are nearly 10 points higher amongst Millennials compared to Boomers.
Leisure day trip rates offer a similarly steady story, with 51.2 percent of American travelers reporting that they took a leisure day trip in the last month, statistically identical to last month although down 3.9-points year-over-year. Fortunately, expectations for travel volume to increase in the next year also remains stable, with 28.8 percent of American travelers saying they expect to travel more for leisure in the coming 12 months. Millennial travelers (36.0%) are by far the likeliest to say they expect to travel more, especially compared to Gen Z travelers (21.5%) and Baby Boomer (25.0%) travelers.

Holiday Season Travel Plans Tracking Slightly Below 2023

As we approach Thanksgiving, just under one a quarter of American travelers (22.8%) say they have a trip planned to celebrate the holiday, led by Gen Z (28.1%) and Millennial (26.1%) travelers. While about a quarter of Gen X travelers (24.6%) also said they will take a trip for Thanksgiving this year, Baby Boomers were much less likely to say they will do so (17.6%). Overall, the current share of American travelers who have a Thanksgiving trip planned is slightly lower than the same time last year (-2.0 percentage points).
The current percentage of American travelers who have a trip planned for Christmas has remained unchanged compared to last month at 29.0 percent; however, this represents a 4.9 point decrease from the same point in 2023. Looking at the breakout by generation, younger travelers are the most likely to say they have plans to travel for Christmas this year at 35.6 percent of Millennial and 32.7 percent of Gen Z travelers. Similarly to Thanksgiving, Gen X travelers (31.4%) trail slightly behind, while significantly fewer Baby Boomer travelers (20.9%) report that they are currently planning to travel for Christmas this year.
For the New Year's holiday, 12.8 percent of American travelers currently have plans to travel, up slightly compared to last month (+1.4 points), but tracking below the same time last year (-4.3-points). Notably, more than a quarter of Gen Z travelers (27.6%) currently have travel plans for New Year's, ahead of Millennial (19.5%) and Gen X (12.1%) travelers, and significantly above Baby Boomer travelers (5.2%).

The Inspirational Ability of Movie & TV

Movies and TV series certainly have their impact on travel decisions, with nearly 30% of American travelers reporting visiting destinations specifically because they were featured on screen. Over 11% have been motivated by movie locations, 10.7% by both movie and TV series locations, and 8.3% by TV series alone.

Unique Media for Marketing Travel to Different Generations

Last month we explored some of the trends around overall top marketing channels to reach American travelers with destination messaging. This month, Future Partners explores deeper trends around how these top marketing channels have tracked over time for specific generations. There are clear divides, as mentioned last month, with Instagram ranking highly among Millennial (35.3%) and Gen Z (32.2%) travelers, but significantly lower among Gen X (22.9%) and Baby Boomer (7.7%) travelers. Similarly, more than a third of Gen Z travelers (34.9%) and nearly one in four Millennial travelers (23.7%) would be receptive to destination marketing on TikTok, but just 11.9 percent of Gen X and only 3.1 percent of Baby Boomer travelers say the same.
But further investigation, particularly around each generation's top five destination marketing channels, yields some additional distinctions that can help destination marketers be more targeted in their messaging and media plans. TikTok is the top choice for Gen Z travelers, but is nowhere to be found in the top 5 lists of the older generations. In contrast, email does not make an appearance on Gen Z's list, but is ranked second for Gen X and Baby Boomer travelers, and makes fourth in the list for Millennial travelers. Facebook is the only social media platform to make the top 5 list for all generations, though it only ranks fifth for Baby Boomers. Of important note for digital marketing strategies, across the board, the top 5 destination marketing channels this month for all generations are comprised entirely of online content; print formats are not ranked.
Taking a look at historical trends for each generations' top 5 channels, we also found that while Millennial and Gen X travelers have a slightly more even distribution of the share of respondents who prefer each channel, Gen Z travelers have historically demonstrated a higher preference for short-form video social media platforms TikTok and Instagram versus their other top channels (Facebook, online content, websites found via organic search). Similarly, a much larger share of Baby Boomer travelers have historically preferred their top two channels (websites found via organic search and email) over their other top channels (online content, review websites, Facebook). Targeting a more even mix of digital channels could be more effective to reach for Millennial and Gen X travelers with destination messaging. On the other hand, doubling down on TikTok and Instagram may be an optimal strategy for Gen Z, while focusing on emails and SEO may be the most impactful approach for Baby Boomer travelers.

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