[WalletHub] Dr. Markham-Bagnera on Winter Travel Trends
You can learn a lot about people from their travel habits generally and their attitudes toward winter travel in particular. After all, winter travel can be especially trying, on both our patience and our wallets.
To get a better sense of how U.S. consumers are feeling about their ability to get away heading into the most expensive time of the year, WalletHub conducted a nationally representative online survey. Here are some of their findings:
64% of people plan to travel away from home this winter.
4 in 10 people who don’t plan to travel this winter say they can’t afford it.
16% of people plan to apply for a new credit card to save on winter travel.
37% of people think travel is worth getting into debt for.
Dr. Suzanne Markham-Bagnera was asked to speak to some of these statistics:
Q: Roughly 43% of people say they don’t plan to travel away from home this winter because they can’t afford it/need to save money; what do you make of that?
A: As we move into the fall season, many friends that I know are not prepared yet for the winter season. I still haven’t given up my flip-flops up yet! While this study indicates that significant amount of respondents are not planning to travel away from home this winter, there could be several reasons. One aspect to travel down is the fact that people might be unsure of the future based on the political drama leading up to the midterm elections. This could drive people to want to save their money. Another road to travel is that there are no special deals or great packages being marketed. Hence, no great options are on the forefront of individuals’ minds. Travel is not all that inexpensive of a proposition. Air travel requires round trip transportation to the airport and most likely baggage fees; then of course the destination expenses. Recently, there has been an increase in basic airline fares, where additional charges apply if you don’t pay attention. I’ve had friends looking at traveling to their family home and found it to be cost prohibitive or more expensive than last year. At this point in the year, those traveling with kids have opted to not travel for the winter via air. They have decided they will consider driving when it gets closer or seek out any last minute deals that pop up. Generations can make an impact on this travel decision. My family includes a Generation X and a Baby Boomer; at this time we are not looking at any travel, as we will be saving our money for the summer vacation that we hope to make happen.
Q: More than 90% of people believe airlines take advantage of holiday travelers; why do people just accept this?
A: These ties in direction relation to the feedback I provided on the previous question. I organize a mother’s group of over 40 families in the North of Boston area; many of my friends have between one to three kids. Not everyone in the group is from this area; at least a third of the families have parents or in-laws in other states. As the holidays are approaching numerous families have looked at the prices for travel and have opted to stay at their own home and encourage the grandparents to come to them instead. Supply and demand are the cornerstones to yield management which started with the airline industry. Consider using an alert system with a third party website that watches the rates and alerts you to a drop when it occurs. I use Hipmunk and find it helpful when I get an alert for the area that I’m interested in traveling in. In this way, if I feel like the price point matches what I can afford, then I can book; if it doesn’t come to that point then I don’t travel.
Q: Millennials are 12 times more likely than baby boomers to apply for a new credit card to save on winter travel; why do you think that is?
A: Some of the travel cards, which exist, have a low to no interest rate for a short period of time is an attractive aspect to consider. Millennials are more likely to be willing to take on this credit risk than a Baby Boomer, with more years of credit bearing history.
Read the full article on Wallet Hub.
Source: https://wallethub.com/blog/winter-travel-survey/54756/ “2018 Winter Travel Survey. John S. Kiernan, Senior Writer & Editor. October 5, 2018.