Skift Take

U.S. doesn't just need BrandUSA to get international visitors to U.S., it needs a big get-out-and-travel marketing effort right in our own backyard. Of course weak-recovery economy doesn't help, whatever the marketing efforts may be.

TRAVEL HABITS OF AMERICANS-logoLast week, we started a new series of consumer surveys on Skift, focusing on the big picture travel habits of Americans, in the U.S. and abroad.

The first survey focused on international travel habits of Americans, which remain meager. The second one below focuses on an even more basic question: how often to Americans travel? Turns out, a majority of adult Americans have not traveled at all in the last year, according to this Skift survey.

The main question we asked: Have you traveled for business or leisure in the last year? And a majority, 62 percent of the adult U.S. internet population, said no, they hadn’t traveled anywhere in the last year.

Important: This survey — not served to Skift users — was administered to about 3,555 members of the U.S. adult internet population in August 2014, through Google Consumer Surveys. The methodology is explained here. See previous Skift Surveys here.

» Topline Result (Chart 1, below): Almost 63 percent of adult Americans said they did not travel for either business or leisure over the last year. The rest, about 37.6 percent said they did. If you add below 18 population, and those not online at all, the total percentage of Americans who haven’t traveled will likely go a lot higher, confirming the cliches about  the anemic travel habits of Americans.

survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1

» Breakdown by sex, Chart 2 below: The split along gender lines of those Americans who have’t traveled in the last year is pretty even.

survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1 (1)

» Breakdown by age, Chart 3 below: No discernible trends again by age, except that older (perhaps retired) Americans have traveled more than any other age category.survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1 (2)» Breakdown by region, Chart 4 belowTruly the United States, when it comes to Americans not traveling in the last year.survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1 (3)

» Breakdown by urban/rural divide, Chart 5 below: Also a tie, though Urban America travels slightly more than others.survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1 (4)

» Breakdown by income, Chart 6 below: The richer the Americans, the more they have traveled, that is obvious.

survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1 (5)

» Breakdown by parental status, Chart 7 below:  Surprise, surprise, non-parents have traveled much less than parents in America. survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1 (6)

» Breakdown by parental status, Chart 8 below: Mean have traveled more for business in last year than women in America.

survey-baxvwdofwosee-question-1 (7)

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Photo credit: Skift's continuing series of surveys on travel habits of Americans.

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