Travel planning 101 - Which resources do Americans rely on when planning their travel itineraries?
Planning a vacation can be tricky. You could be close to booking but stumble upon a damning review online about the hotel or the tour company you so liked bringing you back to shortlisting options all over again.
So how do Americans go about planning their vacations? Which resources do they typically use to plan travel itineraries?
Data from a recent YouGov Surveys: Serviced poll reveals that nearly two in five American adults (38%) rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family when planning travel itineraries. This resource enjoys a strong seven-point lead over review and rating websites (31%), followed by travel booking platforms (27%).
Data from Profiles, which covers demographic, psychographic, attitudinal and behavioural consumer metrics, reveals that a majority and similar proportions of men and women (70% vs. 71%) have at least one destination in mind or already selected when planning their next vacation.
But men are more likely than women to book vacations (44% vs. 38%) and short breaks (42% vs. 39%) outside of school vacations/breaks.
Nearly two in five men (38%) wait for last minute deals when planning vacations, rather than getting their vacation or breaks sorted in advance. A third of women (33%) say they do the same.
More than a third of men (36%) are averse to package holidays or vacations - more than a quarter of women (28%) agree.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 505 and 2004 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in August 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for the US is nationally representative of the online population and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.
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