SINGAPORE 16 June 2021: Vaccine rollouts globally are driving demand for summer vacations, with vaccinated travellers more likely to stay longer and spend more on their trips than unvaccinated travellers, according to the latest travel trends research from Tripadvisor.
The report, ‘A Shot in The Arm for Travel’ examines the vaccine’s impact on leisure travel demand, revealing the type of trips travellers are actively researching on the world’s largest travel platform – with consumer sentiment analysis gathered via traveller surveys in six major international markets.
The report identifies apparent behavioural differences in how vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers are thinking about travel and how that is translating into travel planning on the Tripadvisor platform.
It shows vaccinated travellers more likely to be booking vacations already and to be planning to stay longer and spend more when they travel.
In countries like the US and the UK, where the vaccination rollout has reached large swathes of the adult population, eager travellers are pushing the tourism recovery forward. At the other end of the spectrum, countries where the vaccine rollout is at a less advanced stage, and new variants of Covid-19 have impacted local populations – particularly across the Asia-Pacific region – are experiencing a slower recovery.
Since January, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France have all seen significant growth in hotel search traffic on Tripadvisor, while in Australia – which is heading into its winter months – the recovery in search traffic has been essentially flat.
Vaccinated travellers are a key driver of demand – when surveyed, a third (32%) of vaccinated travellers globally said they had booked a domestic vacation, of whom 80% agreed that the vaccine had been a factor in their decision to book.
By comparison, less than a fifth (19%) of unvaccinated travellers had already booked a domestic trip. Among those yet to be vaccinated, nearly half (48%) of those domestic planning trips are waiting to receive at least one dose of the vaccine before booking.
Domestic tourism is dominating travel planning searches for the peak season ahead, but for trips further out, travellers are already actively planning international travel:
In the first week of May, travellers planning summer vacations on Tripadvisor were overwhelmingly searching for domestic vacations – 75% of June vacation searches globally were for domestic destinations, as well as 67% of searches for July trips and 62% of those looking to get away in August.
However, for trips planned later in the year, international hotel searches on Tripadvisor made up the majority of trips planned from November 2021 onwards.
The urban tourism revival is in full swing. City destinations are re-emerging as the trip of choice for vaccinated travellers.
Of those vaccinated travellers planning to vacation in 2021, nearly a third (32%) say they feel more confident about visiting an urban centre due to receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.
On average, vaccinated travellers plan to spend more and vacation longer than other travellers.
Globally, 22% of respondents plan to take a longer trip than they would have done pre-pandemic, rising to nearly a third (30%) of vaccinated respondents.
During the first week of May, nearly half (46%) of all international accommodation searches on Tripadvisor were for stays lasting six days or more.
Globally, more than a third (35%) of vaccinated travellers surveyed plan to spend more on their next trip compared to what they spent on travel before the pandemic, while only a fifth (20%) of those yet to receive the vaccine plan to do so.
In the US overall, 40% of travellers surveyed say they plan to spend more on their next trip. You can read the report in full here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/TravelTrendsReportJune2021
