Travel Kicking Up in High Gear - Let's Go!

Following up our LinkedIn survey about wanting to know where followers are traveling to next, we’ve seen some great articles by TripAdvisor and STR that dive into this topic in more detail. What we know….People are traveling again, and hoteliers have not been this enthusiastic to welcome guests in a long long time!

Personally, I am traveling with my family to Atlantis Bahamas in the next three weeks and the measures that Bahamas are taking (and actually many federal governments around the world) make a great deal of sense when it comes to keeping tourists and local natives safe. Bahamas mandates that each traveler over 10 years of age must have a covid-19 negative test within 5 days of travel. This measure ensures the seriousness of the traveler as well as reduces the probability and exposure of an infected individual traveling. This bodes well for everyone! Additionally, all of the precautionary measures the airports and airlines have implemented and continue to do make it safer to travel. The resort itself follows CDC guidelines and has its own measures they are taking. Ironically, with the exception of the mandating of masks, they were doing all of these items when my family went last March 2020 before the West went under complete lockdown on that dreaded Friday the 13th.

Two articles most recently caught my attention, the first one from TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor survey revealed more than 50% of Americans are planning a trip this Spring. YES!!! That is simply fantastic. Based on the survey, and not surprisingly, people want to get out in the SUN! Fastest growing destinations this spring are Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean. Unfortunately, cities are growing in occupancy but they are the slowest given the need for outdoor and social-distanced trips which beaches and the outdoors can provide. All in all some fantastic news about people traveling and specifically millennials were nearly 60% planning to trip. Let’s go experience generation!

Check out the top 10 Fasted Growing Destinations and 10 Slowest-Growing Destinations for Americans courtesy of TripAdvisor:

The other article that got me excited about Spring and Summer was a post from STR. Weekly occupancy in the US reached a highest level in a year and surpassed 50%. This truly bodes well for the summer given some of the items I mentioned earlier. Many locations across the US showing great week over week changes and not just all in Florida! See below courtesy of STR and CoStar Reality:

From a revenue management and reporting perspective, hotels are becoming more confident in increasing rates and requesting assistance to manage properties. For all of the suppliers and vendors that support hospitality, it's really something to be optimistic. We all knew travel would be back again and while we are nowhere near 2019, it's certainly taking the right next step. We cannot wait to see hotel revenues return and expect a safe but incredible summer!