What Americans Like To Do With Their Time Off According to MMGY Global’s 2017-2018 Portrait of American Travelers, domestic destinations will be approximately 85% of all Americans’ vacations, during the 12 months ending May 2018, an increase of 7% from the previous report. MMGY Global’s research also discovered that 40% of domestic travel will be to a new destination. The road trip will continue to be the primary type of travel, which was the case for 39% of US leisure travel during the past year, a 17% increase Y-O-Y. MMGY Global also reports that 53% of vacations during the year prior to June 2017 included at least one attraction, with art/history museums, first, at 65%; followed by aquariums, 59%; science museums, 56%; theme parks, 55%; and zoos, 55%.

Americans’ Tenuous Relationship with Travel Agents Although the use of online travel research and booking has been challenging for traditional travel agencies, new research indicates that travel agents are crucial to helping all travelers, including Millennials, to plan the type of travel that interests them. A national study found that 69% of “American leisure travelers take their first step towards researching travel online.” Nonetheless, the same study revealed that Millennials, at 14%, are the largest age group to take their first step with a travel agent. The study also revealed that 51% of all US travelers think using a travel agent will result in paying more for their vacation and almost one- third were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to customize their trip through a travel agent.

Travelers at Virtually Every Age According to MMGY Global, approximately 60 million US households will travel during the 12 months ending May 2018, a 6% increase, but they will spend $5 billion less; however, 9.5 million Millennial families will travel 36% more and spend 19% more. A Visa study found that health and aging are secondary factors to income among all international travelers, with 20% of those with incomes of $150,000 or more traveling internationally at least once per year – and they do so, even during their seventies. A Euromonitor study indicates that Mid-lifers, or the youngest Baby Boomers, are a travel segment of significant benefit to the travel industry, since they are generally at the peak of their careers and have considerable wealth.

Time to Join Workaholics Anonymous A troubling trend for the travel industry is a May 2017 Skift survey that found 42% of Americans said they weren’t taking a 2017 vacation. Although more adults 18–44 had planned and booked their vacations, they had the highest index for no vacation. An earlier 2017 online survey from GfK revealed that 54% of Americans did not use their vacation time during 2016, or a total of 662 million vacation days. If they had used those vacation days, then they would have added $128 billion in direct travel spending. The survey also gathered state-by-state data and discovered that the residents of Idaho had the highest percentage (78%) who didn’t use their 2016 vacation time. The primary reason for 36% of them was the importance of being completed dedicated to their job.

Tech Is as Important as a Suitcase…Maybe More Although a 2017 comScore survey found that 73% of Millennials had used a mobile device to book travel (no surprise there!), a 2016 Skift survey of travel marketers revealed that 62% did not consider their companies a mobile-first organization. Of those travel marketers surveyed, 35% said 21% to 40% of their traffic originates from mobile devices (both smartphones and tablets), the largest percentage; however, 47% said 20% or less and only 18% said 41% or more. Skift also surveyed travelers, and 85% said they used Facebook the most of all social media apps during their daily lives; followed by YouTube, 67%; Twitter, 50%; Instagram, 47%; and Google+, 39%.

Advertising Strategies When consumers book a trip through your agency, reward them with a free family pass to an art, history or science museum closest to their destination. Try to interest travel agencies with Millennials on staff in a “Midnight Traveler” TV campaign during the late-night period to reach Millennials. Promote a phone number to call immediately to talk with a travel agent to plan a trip. Travel agencies and companies may be able to use TV, efficiently and effectively, to brand themselves as a specialist serving older Generation X members and younger Baby Boomers, who now may be empty nesters, and finally have the freedom and income to travel.

New Media Strategies Because such a large percentage of American travelers choose new destinations for their vacations, start a monthly e-newsletter with stories that feature new and unusual destinations. Ask customers to share experiences in videos for social media posting. Create content, preferably videos featuring staff agents, that dispels the myths that travelers will pay for a vacation/trip and can’t customize their vacation/trip through a travel agent. Because of the huge amount of vacation days that Americans don’t take, travel agents may be to partner with large, local companies to provide content for an employee Website promoting vacations’ health values, sharing travel ideas and employee discounts.