LEISURE TRAVEL FORECAST: SUNNY AND WARM

Although the turmoil in the Middle East has worsened, the national savings rate is negative, and the price of gasoline at the pump is likely to climb well above $3.00 per gallon in the weeks ahead, 95% of all active travelers in America took at least one vacation during the previous 12 months (on average, they took four), and fully 33% are planning to take more vacations this year than last (26% are planning to take fewer). Once again, the data from our just-released 2007 National Leisure Travel Monitor™ reveal that Americans view vacations as an essential part of contemporary life. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that demand from leisure travelers now fills more hotel rooms and airline seats on an annual basis than demand from business travelers.

The incidence of leisure travel continues to be dominated by adults traveling as couples (61%), followed by adults traveling with children (31%) and adults traveling alone (28%). And “visiting friends and relatives” remains the most popular type of vacation (by 56% of leisure travelers), followed by beach/lake vacations (27%), general sightseeing vacations (21%), urban/city vacations (15%), cruise vacations (12%), camping/hiking vacations (12%) and theme park vacations (11%). One out of ten (9%) American leisure travelers took a gambling vacation, while only 2% took a golf vacation.

Consistent with the prediction we made several years ago, the frenetic pace of contemporary life continues to erode the limited vacation time Americans have each year (only 13 days on average, versus 26 days in Canada and 42 in Italy). It is also the primary reason why the most popular form of vacationing is a weekend trip of four nights or less that includes a Saturday night stay. This type of vacation represents the majority (52%) of all vacations taken by Americans last year!

The lodging preferences of American leisure travelers mirror those of business travelers with one primary exception: leisure travelers are significantly less likely to prefer “luxury” accommodations. They are also slightly less likely to prefer “full-service” hotels than business travelers as revealed in the table below:

When Traveling For Leisure, Prefer:	2007 %
Chain hotels/motels	85
Independent hotels/motels	15
Economy hotels/motels	19
Moderate hotels/motels	68
Luxury hotels	13
Full-service hotel/motel with a restaurant	65
Limited-service hotel/motel without a restaurant	35
A hotel/motel with less than 300 rooms	82
A hotel/motel with 300 or more rooms	18
Traditional hotels/motels	74
All-suite hotels/motels	26

The majority (66%) of leisure travelers who are airline and hotel users now go exclusively to the Internet when planning a future vacation, while 57% report making reservations online. These numbers underscore the remarkable way in which consumers have embraced this new medium since 2000, at which time only 35% of leisure travelers used the Internet to plan travel and just 19% actually made a reservation online.

The top "dream destinations" for Americans remain the Hawaiian Islands and national parks, although the Florida Keys, San Diego, Orlando and Las Vegas are also high on the list for millions of Americans as revealed in the table below:

Extremely/Very Interested In Visiting:	Total %
Hawaiian Neighbor Islands (i.e., Maui, Kauai, etc.)	68
National parks (i.e., Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, etc.)	67
Honolulu	63
The Florida Keys	51
San Diego	43
San Francisco	43
Orlando	43
Las Vegas	42
Lake Tahoe	42
Colorado Mountian Resorts	41
New York	41

All of these data confirm, once again, that Americans view their vacations as a birthright.

Click here to order a complete copy of the Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell/Yankelovich Inc. 2007 National Leisure Travel Monitor™.