Skift Take
In spite of the surge of Omicron, 45 percent of Americans took a trip in December. In specific, almost 6 percent of all December journeys were to another country, marking the greatest rate considering that the pandemic begun. And expecting 2022, Americans are positive about taking a trip more.
Haixia Wang
The U.S. travel sector took a blow from Omicron, but the result was moderate. According to Skift Research study’s freshly launched U.S. Travel Tracker: December 2021 Highlights report, 45 percent of Americans took a trip in December. Regardless of the typical holiday travel season, this was 2 percentage points lower than September, when the summer season holiday was wrapping up.
Omicron was plainly behind this dip. However, if we compare the number to the 46 percent travel rate in January 2020, before the pandemic hit, and the 29 percent travel rate in December 2020, when Delta was spreading wildly in the country, we see a far more normalized Covid impact.
Outbound travel continued to get momentum, with global trips representing 5.6 percent of all trips in December, the highest considering that March 2020. In spite of the ongoing growth this year, however, the last mile of international travel will take a lot longer to reach. In the Skift Research Study Global Travel Outlook 2022 report, we estimate that worldwide, cross-border journeys in 2022 would be still 64 percent below the 2019 level. U.S., while standing apart as one of the greatest recovering markets for global trips, won’t be able to reach the pre-Covid level any time soon.
Skift Research study presented a monthly U.S. travel tracking study in January 2020 to take a look at the travel penetration rates and detailed travel habits of the U.S. population. In addition to the factual travel events, we also asked respondents their perceptions on the macro-level financial condition as well their personal monetary and travel outlook. We switched the study to every other month in 2021. As we move through various stages of Covid-19, our tracking survey catches the changes of consumer travel behavior and intent in genuine time.
In our recently released U.S. Travel Tracker: December 2021 report, we highlight new and ongoing trends in travel incidences, consumer sentiments and future travel intents in the pandemic world, distilled from our September Travel Tracker survey.
Find out more
What You’ll Gain from This Report
- Travel incidences, January 2020– December 2021
- December travel highlights
- Covid impacted travel, January– December 2021
- Changing consumer sentiments on the financial outlook, February 2020– January 2022
- Customer intent for 2022 travel
- Remote work pattern and its influence on travel and mobility
- Covid vaccine rate and its influence on travel
This is the latest in a series of reports and information items that Skift Research puts out to assist you evaluate the impact of the coronavirus on the travel market. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. Over 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis enters into each report.
After you subscribe, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports carried out on subjects varying from technology to marketing method to deep dives on essential travel brand names. You will also be able to access our proprietary Skift Recovery Index and Skift Health Rating data and reports.