SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Switchfly, Inc., the technology company powering travel search/booking, loyalty program engagement and ancillary merchandising solutions for the world’s most celebrated airlines, hotels, online travel agencies and financial services companies, today released a survey gauging whether or not travel will be part of Americans’ New Year’s resolution. The online survey conducted on behalf of Switchfly by Harris Poll in September among over 2,000 U.S. adults found that two-thirds of Americans (66 percent) resolve to do more traveling in the New Year. Of these, over a quarter want to travel more domestically, some want to travel with friends and loved ones -- few want to travel abroad.
Among those Americans who are making travel part of their resolution in the New Year, three in ten resolve to travel more with their significant other (30 percent), with their family (30 percent), and to spend time exploring the vast and many wonders of the United States (28 percent). 25 percent hope to take better advantage of their weekends for travelling in the coming year, while a minority plan to do more “voluntouring” (6 percent) or traveling to learn foreign languages (5 percent).
| Americans Top Travel Resolutions for the New Year: | ||||
| Travel more with significant other | 30 percent | |||
| Travel more with family | 30 percent | |||
| Travel more inside of the U.S. | 28 percent | |||
| Take more weekend trips | 25 percent | |||
| Travel more with friends | 18 percent | |||
|
Do more adventure travel |
15 percent |
|||
|
Travel more internationally |
14 percent |
|||
| Do more exotic travel | 12 percent | |||
| Try “voluntourism” (volunteering abroad) | 6 percent | |||
|
More “hookups” when traveling |
6 percent | |||
| Travel to learn a new language | 5 percent | |||
| Travel alone | 5 percent | |||
50 percent of parents of kids under 18 in their household resolve to do more family vacationing, while 32 percent said they hope to travel more with their significant other.
“Holidays are always a big travel season, but travel companies should expect the year that follows to be especially busy,” said Daniel Farrar, CEO of Switchfly. “These findings indicate cross-selling and vacation packaging for couples, families and weekend trips could drive big revenues in 2016 for travel brands.”
“With travel figuring so prominently into Americans’ New Year’s resolutions, people could be hitting the road - or the runway, as the case may be - at the first sign of Spring. Travelers should book early, especially if their resolutions figure around peak travel times, like Spring Break, July 4th, or any Summer weekend.”
Read the full report here: www.switchfly.com/2016travelresolutions
Millennial women feel the need to wander
Those most affected by wanderlust seem to be Millennial women (18-34 years old), who expressed the most interest in almost all forms of travel: 42 percent resolve to travel more with their significant other; 49 percent want to travel more with their families; 39 percent want take more weekend trips; 30 percent want to do more traveling with friends; and 27 percent resolve to do some adventure traveling. With 1 in 4 saying they resolve to travel internationally, they are also the age group to express the most interest in potentially crossing the pond.
And more mature women want to hit the (local) highway
Like Millennial women, the findings show that women of other age categories are most interested in family travel (42 percent of 35-44 year olds), domestic travel (38 percent of 55-65 year olds; 28 percent of 65+ year olds), and weekend trips (32 percent of 55-65 year olds).
Millennial men hope for travel hookups
The only travel category in which Millennial men expressed noticeably more interest than any of their polled peers was traveling with intent to hookup: 20 percent of Millennial men said this would be their New Year’s travel resolution, compared to only 5 percent of Millennial women. The only other age group to express somewhat of an interest in this form of travel? 45-54 year old men, at 10 percent.
And older men are going...somewhere
While trends among women and the younger generations were easy to spot, older men were more divided. Even though well over half of men in (almost) all age categories resolve to travel more in the New Year (77 percent of 18-34 year olds; 69 percent of 35-44 year olds; 53 percent of 45-54 year olds; 48 percent of 55-65 year olds; 57 percent of 65+ year olds), Millennials are the only ones with a clear consensus about where and with whom they hope to travel (33 percent hope to travel more with their families; 30 percent want to do more domestic traveling; 31 percent hope to travel more with friends). The rest of the age groups seems unsure about where and with whom they will be traveling. 11 percent of 45-54 year olds hope to do more adventure traveling; 19 percent of 65+ year olds hope to travel abroad and 21 percent of 35-44 year olds want to do more traveling with their significant others. And, as mentioned, 10 percent of 45-54 year olds will travel in hopes of getting “lucky.”
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Switchfly from September 14-16, 2015 among 2,031 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Gaby@bospar.com.
ABOUT SWITCHFLY
Switchfly, Inc. is a global technology company that powers travel commerce, loyalty program engagement and ancillary merchandising solutions for some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Leading airlines, hotels, online travel agencies and financial service providers depend on Switchfly to power their omni-channel travel experiences because it uniquely combines a highly scalable and secure architecture with deep product and content inventory. Powerful analytics and real-time decision engines foster contextually-rich customer engagement and enable brands to offer a wide range of customized travel services to their customers. Headquartered in San Francisco, Switchfly generates more than $2 billion USD in revenue for its clients annually and facilitates the redemption of more than 40 billion reward points and miles each year. The company’s global client roster includes American Airlines, JetBlue and LAN Airlines; IAG Avios, Lufthansa Miles & More and United MileagePlus; InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Starwood Hotels and Resorts; Groupon and Living Social. For more information, visit www.switchfly.com.