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4 TRAVEL TRENDS THAT SHAPED 2021

By TripIt • December 22, 2021 • News & Culture


In a year of cautious optimism, rescheduled plans, changing restrictions and
requirements, and hope for the holidays, travelers have had their persistence
and resilience tested. And yet, many have been willing to do what it takes—test
pre-departure; test on arrival; show proof of vaccination; reschedule—to get
back out on the road and in the skies. 

Over the course of 2021, we conducted quarterly surveys of American travelers,
plus analyzed our booking data for six major U.S. holidays—Memorial Day, Fourth
of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years—to understand not
only how travelers feel about traveling during a pandemic, but also what types
of trips they’re booking as well as when (and how) they’re actually traveling. 

Looking back across these myriad data points, four travel behaviors rose above
the rest. Here are the top trends that shaped the world of travel this year. 




1. ROAD TRIPS AND RENTAL CAR BOOKINGS REIGNED 

2021 was the year of the road trip—and the rental car. Americans hit the road in
record numbers, and rental car booking data reflected this surge in travel
behavior. 

Back in March, when vaccine rollouts were just picking up steam in the U.S., we
predicted that road trips were likely to reign as the preferred mode of
transport for summer travel. At that time, 83% of Americans said they’d be ready
for a road trip with a personal car, and 60% said they’d be ready to take a road
trip with a rented car or RV, by June of this year. 

In particular, of those planning to travel: 

 * 64% of travelers planned to drive for Memorial Day.
 * 64% planned to drive for Fourth of July.
 * 61% planned to drive for Labor Day.



WHAT WE SAW IN OUR DATA

If rental cars were a stock, you’d be happy with your end-of-year return on
investment, as booking numbers soared (and soared) over the course of 2021. 

Our booking data showed that rental car reservations for Memorial Day 2021 were
220% of 2020 levels. And those numbers remained elevated not just during the
summer road trip surge for Fourth of July (262%) and Labor Day (413%), but also
for Thanksgiving (390%), as well as Christmas and New Years (404%). 




2. TRAVELER CONFIDENCE AND CONCERNS EBBED AND FLOWED

While rental cars were like a rocket ship, the process of traveling itself was
more like a rollercoaster. Indeed, travelers had to comply with constantly
changing travel restrictions and requirements—sometimes with only a few days’
notice. 

The ebbs and flows of the pandemic—dynamic infection rates, vaccination
campaigns, changing requirements, and in particular, new variants—all played
their parts in shaping travelers’ levels of confidence and concern. 

In March, 54% of travelers said airlines having procedures in place to reduce
infection spread, such as mask requirements, reduced capacity on flights,
sanitation procedures, and temperature checks, contributed to their confidence
in returning to air travel. 

In addition, 50% of travelers said airport procedures—that is, social distancing
guidelines, touchless check-in procedures, mask requirements, and sanitation
procedures—helped them feel more comfortable taking a flight. 

By May, when 93% of our survey respondents had been vaccinated or planned to get
vaccinated, survey data revealed that travel concerns were generally reducing.
Less than one quarter of all respondents expressed concern about each of the
myriad aspects of travel. 

Of those travelers who did express concerns, staying current on travel
restrictions and guidelines and knowing how to modify reservations were the top
concerns —with the latter down 21% from our survey in March. Concerns around
understanding vaccine and infection rates and infecting friends or family upon
returning from a trip were also down, dropping 27% and 47%, respectively. 

May data did reveal a new concern: One in four travelers said uncertainty about
the rules for those who are and aren’t vaccinated concerned them about the next
time they traveled.

In August, survey data showed travelers’ comfort level with flying continued to
increase; those comfortable flying in conditions (at the time) was up nearly 79%
since May. And while remaining a top need, airline safety measures’ importance
dropped 29%—thanks to vaccines (more on that, below). 

But by October, the Delta variant had put traveler confidence on its heels—with
many Americans (26%) booking trips they were prepared to cancel or change. A
quarter of travelers (25%) said they were  holding off making plans due to the
Delta variant. 

That’s not all the Delta variant changed. Our October survey data showed that
nearly half of travelers (47%) said in order to feel comfortable flying they
would need proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test required for
passengers. Forty-two percent of travelers wanted to see airlines continue or
increase their safety measures, such as mask requirements and COVID-19 testing
mandates. In addition, more than a third (38%) of travelers said requiring
vaccination or COVID-19 testing for airline employees would make them feel
comfortable flying. (Soon after that survey was fielded, many U.S. airlines
began doing just that.)

Travel-related concerns looked different then, too. More than a third of
travelers (37%) said their top concern was whether they might need to cancel or
reschedule a trip due to COVID-19 restrictions, requirements, or illness.
Staying up to date on travel restrictions, guidelines, and requirements came in
second, with 35% of travelers expressing concern about this. 

And yet, despite Delta (and Omicron) concerns, our booking data showed strong
returns to air travel for Thanksgiving (298% of 2020 volume), as well as
Christmas and New Years (320% of 2020).




3. VACCINES BOOSTED AMERICANS’ CONFIDENCE 

It wouldn’t be 2021 if we didn’t talk about vaccine rollouts and the subsequent
influence of vaccination status on the world of travel. 

Back in March, we asked Americans if vaccines were influencing their confidence
to return to travel. At the time, 59% of travelers said news about the progress
of the vaccine made them more likely to book travel. Thirty-five percent of
travelers said they would wait to fly again until they got vaccinated. Just 8%
of travelers said a vaccine would not change their willingness to travel. 

In May, our survey data showed that almost half (47%) of respondents planned to
travel more than or about the same as they did prior to COVID-19. 

For those who planned to travel more, vaccines were the top reason people felt
comfortable traveling. Our survey data also showed being vaccinated was the top
need for travelers to feel comfortable flying (56% of travelers) , outranking
herd immunity at 37%.

We asked those travelers who had both been vaccinated, as well as those who had
not yet been vaccinated at the time of the survey—but were planning to be—about
their intended travel plans, 68% of respondents who’d been vaccinated said they
had booked a trip since getting their shot(s) or planned to book soon; 66% said
they planned to book a trip after being vaccinated. 



HOW DID AMERICANS FEEL ABOUT VACCINE PASSPORTS?

Sentiment in our surveys towards digital health passports (also called a health
pass, vaccine passport, or COVID vaccine passport) remained consistent
throughout the year. 

In March, the prospect of some type of digital health passport that provides
proof that you’ve been vaccinated appealed to 81% of travelers. Those travelers
said they’d be willing to use a digital health passport if it meant they could
travel freely. 

When we asked travelers in August if they would use a digital health passport
and how they felt about it (love, like, dislike, hate), 84% said they would use
one, regardless if they loved the idea (49%), liked the idea (18%), or disliked
the idea (16%). Just 16% of respondents said they hated the idea of a digital
health passport and would not use one. 

In October, 60% of Americans (who had traveled in the past six months) said they
had carried their CDC COVID-19 vaccination card with them on a trip and 15% used
a vaccine passport app for their trip.




4. VACATIONS WERE (CONSISTENTLY) ALL WE EVER WANTED

The reason why Americans were willing to jump through all those hoops and comply
with myriad requirements? One word: vacations. 

Indeed, since the start of the year, vacations were the consistent, number one
reason Americans planned to travel. 

Here’s what travelers told us: 

 * In March, of those planning to travel in 2021, 73% planned to take a
   vacation. 
 * By May, that number rose slightly to 77% of Americans planned to take a
   vacation.
 * By August, 87% planned to take a vacation—up 10% from our prior survey. 
 * By October, 77% said they planned to take a vacation in the year ahead (still
   the top reason). 

As for where Americans traveled to for vacation, our data showed a number of
trends for the year:

 * The warmer climes of Hawaii, California, and Florida were top destinations
   across 2021. This trend kicked off over Memorial Day weekend and continued
   through to the end of the year. 
 * With a nod to 2020, outdoorsy locales continued to shake up the destination
   rankings. Places like Moab, UT; Anchorage, AK; Yellowstone, WY; and Colorado
   Springs, CO, were popular with American travelers. 
 * While major metros (Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, and the like) started the
   year down, by Labor Day they were back to claim their numbers one, two, and
   three spots (respectively) for accommodation bookings. 

The world of travel in 2021 was shaped by the ebbs and flows of the pandemic.
While we can’t yet say what travel in 2022 will look like, we’re confident
Americans will continue to do what it takes to see (their corner of) the
world—perhaps by rental car, but definitely for vacation—with vaccination card,
face covering, negative test results, and travel documents du jour in hand.


2021 travelCOVID-19flying during COVID-19travel trends

City Break: Orlando
City Break: New Orleans

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