November 14th, 2022, Hoang Nguyen
The holiday season is upon us, and many consumers are already planning how they’ll celebrate the holidays through the end of the year.
According to a new poll from YouGov, traveling for the holidays is still on the calendar for many people. Three in five (60%) US adults indicate they will be traveling in some form through the end of year.
Close to two in five (37%) say they’ll be traveling to somewhere within their state and 16% indicate they have out-of-state travel plans.
A further 7% say they’ll travel both in-state and out-of-state before the end of the year, with consumers from the Northeast (11%) more likely than any other region to say they’ll be traveling both within and outside their state.
Some holiday plans are yet to be set in stone, however, with over a quarter (27%) of US adults saying they’re unsure about their holiday plans yet. Another 13% of all US adults don’t plan to celebrate the holiday at all.
Does financial hardship play a role in how people will travel and gather during the holidays?
We know from several polls over the last few months that inflation will play a big role in the festive season this year.
More than four in five (84%) holiday shoppers in the US say their shopping will be impacted to some extent, with over a third (36%) saying inflation will have a major impact on it.
Americans’ household financial situation also appears to be affecting how—and if—they’ll travel for the holidays. Those who tend to say their household financial situation is better this year are more than twice as likely to have out-of-state travel planned (40% vs. 16% of all US adults).
Notably, Americans who were more optimistic about their financial situation over the course of this year say they plan to attend large gatherings of 10 of more people (38% vs. 23% of all US adults).
People who said there was no change to their financial situation or that it was worse this year are significantly less likely to be traveling out-of-state for the holidays when compared to the general population (13% vs. 16%).
What’s more, those who felt worse about their finances this year express a higher degree of uncertainty over their holiday plans (31%). That’s five percentage points more than the rest of the nation (27%; a statistically significant difference) and 18 points more than those who were optimistic about their financial situation this year (13%).
Make smarter business decisions with better intelligence. Understand exactly what your audience is thinking by leveraging our panel of 20 million+ members. Speak with us today.
Explore our living data – for free
Discover more agencies content and travel and tourism content here