Skift Take

An improving economy means higher consume confidence and the chance to finally indulge in a vacation -- good news for travel companies across sectors and regions.

Leisure travel is back on the rise and Americans are less worried about the financial consequences of a vacation.

This is according to MMGY Global’s survey of 2,324 people that found two-thirds of American adults plan to take at least one vacation in the next six months.

Although this is essentially unchanged from the 70 percent of Americans planning a trip at the same point in 2013, it is several percentage points better than numbers recorded over the past seven years.

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Even more indicative of the improving travel landscape is consumers’ rising confidence in job security and managing travel costs.

Of the 14 factors that have the potential to hurt demand for leisure travel, all experienced a double-digit decline over the past year.

For example, respondents were 12 percent less likely to worry about job loss, 17 percent less likely to worry about the rising cost of health care and 13 less likely to worry about the cost of eating out.

Finacial Factor % 2013 % 2014 Change
Expectation of Job Loss 52 40 -12
Price of Air Travel 54 38 -16
Price of Gas 52 38 -14
Credit Card Debt 53 38 -15
Price of Cruises 48 37 -11
Expectation of Salary Drop 52 36 -16
Cost of Eldery Parent Care 44 34 -10
Cost of Healthcare 50 33 -17
Cost of Theme Parks 46 33 -13
Value of Investment Portfolio 42 33 -9
Declining Value of Dollar 47 30 -17
Stock Market Volatity 42 31 -11
Price of Lodging 43 28 -15
Price of Dining Out 39 26 -13
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Tags: skiftstats, usa, vacations

Photo credit: Two empty lounge chairs sit on an undisclosed beach. Getty Images

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