Poll: Fewer Americans vacationing this summer

Overall, the survey found only 42% of Americans plan a leisure trip this summer, down from the 49% who said they planned to take a summer trip in an AP-Ipsos poll conducted in May 2005.

Not surprisingly, the less money you make, the less likely you are to take a vacation. More than two-thirds of those in the $100,000-plus bracket will take some type of leisure trip this summer, compared to 48% of those earning $50,000-$100,000 and just one-third of those with family incomes under $50,000.

In terms of destinations, 12% of those planning a trip said they would stay in their home state, 67% will go to another state and 19% will travel outside the U.S. The poll also found that 20% of those planning a trip this summer will stay closer to home this year due to economic worries, while 23% will save money by staying with friends or family instead of a hotel.

Despite the downturn, travel bargains are tempting a small number of people — mostly upper-income — to take bigger and better trips. Seven percent of all Americans and 18% of those earning more than $100,000 said they would take more elaborate trips than usual because of lower prices.

The poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from April 16-20 by landline and cellphone telephone interviews with a nationally representative random sample of 1,000 adults. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Arch Woodside, a professor of marketing at Boston College who specializes in tourism, described the overall decrease in summer travel as “a substantial drop” that will have a significant impact on the industry, especially in places like Florida and New York City where tourism is big business.

Woodside said travel could shrink even more next year as new economic realities sink in. “Most people unconsciously maintain their lifestyles immediately after a big drop in their economic well-being: an ‘I’m going to be all right’ response,” Woodside said. “The impact of their new lower economic reality becomes conscious reality in the second year following a big change.”

Age-wise, 30-49-year-olds were most likely to travel, with 48% planning a trip. Among those ages 18-29, 43% said they would travel, and among those ages 50-64, 41% plan a trip. The real drop-off is among older folks: Just 34% of those 65 or older plan to travel this summer.

Among those saying the economy is keeping them home, Tonya Severine of Bladenboro, N.C., said her husband “works construction and there’s nothing going on right now.” With three children, a vacation is not feasible, but she hopes to spend time outside with the kids, even if it means “staying in the backyard.”

Jon-Paul Juette, a 2008 graduate of Pepperdine University living in Los Angeles, says he has to “keep looking for a job in order to stay afloat. Taking a vacation isn’t possible.” He has a degree in advertising and art history, and his dream is to work in entertainment advertising, but he says he’ll “do anything from graphic design to granding to media planning.” He’s doing odd jobs meanwhile to avoid moving back home.

Nancy Saaranen of Saginaw, Mich., and her husband are also staying home this summer, but they traveled to Arizona in March, visiting everything from the Grand Canyon to Sedona, “so we used up our vacation allotment for the year.” Besides, she added, “we’re both retired, and the grandkids have softball through July,” so they hope to enjoy watching lots of games outdoors.

Among those who will be traveling, Betsy Skipp, a children’s advocacy volunteer who lives in Miami, said she intends to get to the Caribbean. “We live in Miami and we need to get out every now and then,” she said.

Susan Jewell, who works as a personal assistant and studies business administration at Southwestern College in Paradise Valley, Ariz., said she’ll be vacationing in California. “Usually the summer is very busy for me, but I am going to San Diego to check it out and hang out with my sister,” she said. “It’s just something we decided to do, spur of the moment.”

Woodside, the marketing professor, said “actions by marketers” could counteract the drop in leisure travel with “innovative travel packaging.” One area where he predicts growth in 2010 and 2011 is in tours offering “must-do-in-this-lifetime-experiences with an unbeatable low price” designed to attract “independent travelers — many of whom hate (conventional) packaged tours.”

Tags: air, airline, Travel, vacation

Americans Vacation Less Due To Work Related Stress

A survey released by Expedia.com finds that 34 percent of employed Americans will not use all of their earned vacation days in 2009. When asked why they are planning to  not take a break from the office, the number one reply was “work-related pressure.”

On average, American workers will give back three vacation days this year, according to the ninth annual Vacation Deprivation survey performed by the opaque travel website. Expedia’s study also revealed that workers are taking fewer extended vacations, with the number of adults who plan to take a two-week vacation dropping to 10 percent in 2009, as compared to 14 percent in 2008.

Other interesting notes from the survey include:

• Women tend to feel guiltier than men when it comes to taking time off from work (40 percent of women vs. 29    percent of men).

• Roughly 39 percent of working Americans expect to use most of their vacation time in 2009 by taking at least    one full week of vacation and spreading out remaining days.

• On average, Americans had 13 vacation days in 2009, one day less than the previous three years.

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Although French get the most days off, they were once polled as being the crankiest workers in the world.

So how did the rest of the world fare in the Expedia Vacation Deprivation survey? Well the site asked countries like Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Australia, Japan, and for the first time, New Zealand. This year, Canadian, French and Australian workers will be granted between one and two more vacation days than in 2008, while all other countries will either receive fewer vacation days or see no change in earned time off.

Want a lot of vacation time? Move to France, where the workers receive and use the most vacation days of all countries surveyed by Expedia. French workers receive 38 days and leave only two days unused.

Now while it may look gloomy for American workers, since we receive the smallest number of vacation days, Japanese employees are the least vacation-minded, as 92 percent of the workers polled said they would not use all vacation days and will leave an average of seven days on the table.

Tags: american, australia, austria, canada, england, france, germany, great britain, italy, japan, new zealand, spain, Travel, uk, usa, vacation