And this holiday travel season is increasingly defined by travelers’ growing use of smartphones and tablets. Among American leisure travelers vacationing during this period, six in ten (63 percent) will use these devices. The most popular applications are GPS functions for directions (43 percent) and finding restaurants along the way (36 percent). One quarter will use these devices to find stores for shopping (26 percent) and post comments, photos, and/or videos on social media (25 percent). And fully one in ten (11 percent) will track Santa’s journey on Christmas Eve.
“Travel service suppliers are increasingly dependent on their internet presence to capture demand during the holiday season,” said Steve Cohen, Vice President, Insights, MMGY Global. “With seven in ten American leisure travelers (72 percent) preferring to drive to their vacation destination during this period, it is essential for hotels, restaurants and attractions to be as digitally accessible as possible to attract this road trip traffic.”
Other forthcoming holiday season travel trends include:
• Tires Over Tarmacs. Seven in ten travelers during the holiday season (72 percent) will drive their personal automobile on vacation this holiday season. Two in ten (19 percent) will fly, and one in ten (9 percent) will take a cruise.
• Destination Preferences. While 59 percent of travelers are planning to vacation someplace warm, 41 percent are going someplace cold. Less than two in ten will take a shopping vacation (14 percent) or go to a casino (13 percent).
• Kids Rule When It Comes To Vacations. A full 60 percent of travelers are planning a trip to visit friends and family over the holidays. However, for the 38 percent of travelers with children, four in ten picked their destination and chose what to activities to do based on their kids’ preferences. And 22 percent are planning to do something special with their children while on the trip. Pets, however, are not as lucky - less than two in 10 (17 percent) travelers intend to include them as part of the holiday entourage!
For more information about these insights or to order the full travelhorizons™ report, visithttp://www.mmgyglobal.com/research.
