MMGY Global research reveals increase in US confidence in domestic travel

MMGY Travel Intelligence’s Travel Intentions Pulse Survey Wave VIII (TIPS) and MMGY Global’s Travel Safety Barometer have revealed that positive perceptions of lodging safety, car travel, business and domestic travel are at their highest in the US since the start of the pandemic. The company’s executive vice-president of insights and strategy, Chris Davidson, said: “We’re seeing this momentum from the summer spurred on by people venturing away from home for the first time in months. Americans are figuring out what they feel comfortable with and are starting to feel safer travelling domestically, though international travel is still perceived by most to be unsafe.” The Domestic Travel Safety Barometer, which measures traveller sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely unsafe) to 100 (extremely safe), experienced a four-point jump in confidence in the safety of domestic travel, increasing from a score of 45 to 49 from July to August. After months of stagnation, the Business Travel Safety Barometer score showed a modest increase to 38, up from 35 points in July. Similarly, the most recent TIPS survey found the likelihood of taking a US domestic business trip during the next six months increased from 31% in July to 35% in August. In addition, the percentage of business travellers who said they were not at all likely to take a business trip during the next six months declined by 10%, from 35% to 25%. The Lodging Safety Barometer reached an all-time high score of 50, as confidence in staying at hotels and resorts rose. These positive feelings are also reflected in the latest TIPS report, which found the likelihood of taking a domestic leisure trip during the next six months has increased from 38% in July to 42% in August. Furthermore, 75% of travellers said they are likely to travel by personal car during the next six months – the highest level reported since the survey began in March. MMGY Travel Intelligence’s Travel Intentions Pulse Survey is conducted monthly among 1,200 US residents who have taken an overnight trip for either business or leisure in the past 12 months. Wave VII of the survey was conducted on 27–31 July, 2020, and Wave VIII was conducted 21–31, August 2020. The full report is available here. MMGY Global’s Travel Safety Barometer is culled monthly from the Travel Intentions Pulse Survey, providing a comprehensive picture of how safe Americans think it is to travel. The full report is available here.