U.S. Travelers Say They'll Spend More on Vacations This Year

As many Americans pack their bags for Memorial Day trips this weekend, the amount of leisure travel they'll do this summer and the rest of 2015 will be lower than last year but this won't compensate vacation spending, a new survey finds.

Though not a significant decrease, 66% of the 2,300 U.S. adults part of an MMGY Global survey indicated they plan to take at least one leisure trip during the next six months, down from 69% for the same period last year. This finding relates to a Skift survey earlier this year which found 42% of Americans didn't take a single vacation day in 2014.

U.S. business travel growth for the next six months will also be negligible: Some 31% of respondents said they're planning to take at least one business trip, nearly unchanged from 30% for the same period last year, and business traveler respondents expect to take an average of three trips before the end of the year, down from 3.7 trips last year.

Vacation spending won't slow down with fewer Americans taking vacations, as was the case last year. About 27% of respondents said they plan to spend more on their vacations during the next six months, up from 22% for the same period last year, when asked if they'll spend more, less or about the same as last year.

The strengthening dollar and lower gas prices are two factors the survey points to for why vacation spending likely won't drag this summer. Travelers' perceptions of affordability of travel, as it turns out, was the only one of six factors to display a notable increase for this quarter year-over-year based on last year's survey results. These factors include interest in travel, time for travel, personal finances available for travel, quality of service and safety of travel.