As noted in Mintel’s American Lifestyles—U.S., January 2009, millions of Americans have made subtle changes to their lifestyles as a result of the recession. While Americans continue to travel in relatively large numbers, many are making greater efforts to locate travel bargains before purchasing while others are taking shorter trips and/or traveling with a group to cut costs.
Given these and other significant changes in travel-related attitudes and behaviors—as well as the fact that the market is as competitive as it has ever been—it is important for companies to focus their marketing and development efforts on the preferences and lifestyles of travelers, especially frequent travelers. This report provides data and insight that will help companies gain a deeper understanding of today’s leisure traveler.
More specifically, this report addresses the following questions:
- How are American vacation attitudes and behaviors changing in response to the recession? - What segments of the population travel the most and which should be targeted for loyalty programs? - How has use of lodging, air travel and rental cars changed in recent years? - What lodging services are most important to consumers and should be emphasized in ads and collateral? - What are the most popular countries to travel to abroad and which states have the most appeal to leisure travelers? - Which airport services are most likely to be used by leisure travelers? - Which are the leading companies in the lodging, air travel and rental car segments? - How are travel companies promoting their offerings?
