But to make their vacation plans work, consumers must continue to contend with inflation and rising prices, with nearly half of survey respondents saying they plan to spend more on travel in 2024 than they did last year. So to compensate for their restlessness, Americans are putting other major life plans on hold.
According to the survey, one in five millennials and 17% of Gen Z plan to postpone major life purchases, like buying a home, in order to pay for travel. Nearly a third of Americans say they won't wait until retirement to explore the world, instead prioritizing travel now.
It's not just big financial milestones like buying a home or retirement that are being put off, Empower said: People are also saving up, and in some cases going into debt, to pay for travel.
More than two-thirds of Gen Xers and millennials said they've cut back on dining out to save up for travel, and about 10% of Empower survey respondents have gone into debt to pay for travel, an average of $2,849, with more than a quarter of them saying it would take them more than a year to pay off the debt.
The travel industry boomed in 2023 as a pandemic-spurred consumer demand for experiences rebounded, and a year later, that appetite doesn't seem to have subsided: On the Friday before Memorial Day, more than 2.9 million travelers were screened at U.S. airports, breaking the single-day record set around Thanksgiving last year.
Airlines expect to carry 271 million passengers throughout the summer, 6.3% more than last year's record-breaking season.
According to a recent report from Expedia, Americans are more eager to travel than ever before, with 65% of survey respondents telling the travel company they feel even more deprived of vacation time than they were during the pandemic.
Expedia's public relations director, Christy Hudson, told Fortune that a significant percentage of survey respondents plan to travel in 2024 “no matter what.”
“People seem to be very aligned coming out of the pandemic in terms of valuing experiences over things, that whole mindset,” he said.
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