Travel Trends: Pandemic Travel

As you can imagine, travel trends are changing daily as the world navigates COVID -19. So much so that it’s hard to even characterize them as “trends” since a trend is generally a type of activity that changes consistently over time. What we are dealing with currently as we work through the pandemic era may better be described as quickly changing buyer behaviors.

Initially in the spring of 2020, due to several COVID-related issues including a sharp increase in the number of cases, states enacting travel bans and lock downs, venues in destination areas shutting down completely, and significant job loss and economic hardship, the cancellations flooded in. At that time the majority of cancellations were made for bookings that had a check-in date within 60 days. Once our area began to re-open and shelter in place orders were lifted, we saw a surge in new bookings or rebookings due mostly to pent-up demand. Instead of a gradual recovery you would expect in a stock market for example, the vacation rental industry in our area experienced a rapid rebound due to the fact that individuals who were cooped up at home for months were now ready to get out and go go go, and they also had stimulus money.

Reservations coming in now are for short lead times, typically within fourteen days. Travelers are making few bookings any farther out, showing that there is still a significant amount of uncertainty and not much consumer optimism. Additionally now as we see new cases on the rise again and possible extensions of stay at home orders, we are seeing another round of cancellations.

Although there is so much uncertainty right now, consumer behavior to certain conditions can be somewhat predictable. We are paying close attention to the data, as well as our industry experts, in order to be proactive or quick to react to changing conditions.