Destination Analysts’ Latest Traveler Sentiment

Report for August 2023

Americans’ travel budgets continue to decline; however, more than half of American traveler remain optimistic about their future finances. Key findings from The State of the American Traveler’s most recent study reveals:

  • Travel Budgets Continue to Decline: In January, the typical American traveler said they expected to spend $4,677 on their leisure travel over the next 12 months. Since then, reported travel budgets have steadily declined, now at $3,505—the lowest average budgets have reached since October 2021.
  • Americans Remain Optimistic about their Finances: More than half of American travelers anticipate that they will be better off financially next year compared to now, the most optimistic they have felt since July 2021. Nearly one-third of American travelers believe it’s likely that the US stock market will enter a bull market in the coming months.
  • Travelers Predict Less Price Gouging and Labor Shortages, More Crowding, Frustration & AI: Compared to how they felt at the beginning of the year, American travelers are slightly less likely to now believe that price gouging and labor shortages will be common in the travel industry, but more likely to feel that domestic travel will become more frustrating, and that National Parks will be overrun with tourists. Meanwhile, predictions that the metaverse will start replacing some real-world travel jumped to 30.0% from 21.3%.
  • Tik Tok & Podcasts Keeps Rising: Tik Tok is firmly tops with GenZ travelers, with 42.2% citing the service as where they would be most receptive to learning about new travel destinations. This is nearly double the percent of Millennials (who continue to cite Instagram and Facebook as their top travel inspiration sources) who said the same. More than one-third of American travelers now say they regularly listen to podcasts, and nearly 20% of this group reports that they listen to travel podcasts.
  • Shorter Travel Planning Windows: Americans who traveled in the last month said they planned this most recent trip 6.4 weeks out. American travelers are now reporting they would begin planning a week-long domestic vacation just 9.8 weeks out.