{"id":349245,"date":"2025-11-07T13:23:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reviews.com\/?p=349245"},"modified":"2025-11-12T13:38:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:38:57","slug":"2020-travel-trends-81-of-us-residents-planning-a-vacation-say-they-will-travel-by-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reviews.com\/insurance\/car\/2020-travel-trends-81-of-us-residents-planning-a-vacation-say-they-will-travel-by-car\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Travel Trends: 81% of US residents planning a vacation say they will travel by car"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Since our original 2020 survey of 906 U.S. residents, high\u2011frequency indicators show a full rebound and evolution in how Americans travel. U.S. airport throughput set new records in 2024 (TSA screened 3,013,413 passengers in a single day) and remains elevated heading into 2025 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsa.gov\">TSA record day<\/a>; ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsa.gov\/travel\/passenger-volumes\">TSA checkpoint volumes<\/a>). Global passenger demand continues to strengthen according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iata.org\/en\/iata-repository\/publications\/economic-reports\/air-passenger-monthly-analysis\/\">IATA\u2019s monthly analysis<\/a>, while Americans\u2019 driving activity exceeded 3.2 trillion vehicle\u2011miles in 2023 per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhwa.dot.gov\/policyinformation\/travel_monitoring\/tvt.cfm\">FHWA Traffic Volume Trends<\/a>. These data confirm that both flying and driving are robust, with road trips remaining a cornerstone of U.S. leisure travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Road trips remain the dominant leisure format: AAA projected record car travel during major 2024 holidays\u2014about 60.6 million by car over Independence Day and roughly 38.4 million by car over Memorial Day (<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.aaa.com\/\">AAA<\/a>). Nationally, Americans drove about 3.26 trillion miles in 2023, a post\u2011pandemic high (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhwa.dot.gov\/policyinformation\/travel_monitoring\/tvt.cfm\">FHWA<\/a>), and everyday mobility in the U.S. is heavily car\u2011oriented (ACS 2022: 68.7% drove alone and 8.6% carpooled to work; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\">U.S. Census<\/a>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Air travel confidence and activity are high: TSA set multiple all\u2011time screening records in 2024 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsa.gov\">record press release<\/a>), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iata.org\/en\/iata-repository\/publications\/economic-reports\/air-passenger-monthly-analysis\/\">IATA<\/a> continues to report strong demand into 2025. Consumer trackers show sustained intent to fly in the next six months and widespread comfort with flying, with affordability and delays\/cancellations\u2014not health\u2014now the top deterrents (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ustravel.org\">U.S. Travel TIPS<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/morningconsult.com\/industry\/travel-hospitality\/\">Morning Consult<\/a>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cars dwarf other U.S. passenger modes in everyday use: Public transportation accounts for about 3.1% of commute trips nationally, while walking is ~2.5% (ACS 2022), underscoring why most leisure trips default to driving and why bus\/rail remain minority options for many Americans (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\">U.S. Census<\/a>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gas prices influence trip length and spend more than trip cancellations: Short\u2011run gasoline demand elasticities around \u22120.05 to \u22120.20 mean a 10% price increase typically reduces fuel use\/VMT by only ~0.5%\u20132% (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\">Hughes, Knittel, Sperling<\/a>). The EIA\u2019s late\u20112024 outlook indicated average U.S. retail gasoline prices in 2025 would be similar to or lower than 2024, supporting continued road\u2011trip resilience (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/outlooks\/steo\/\">EIA STEO<\/a>; current levels: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/petroleum\/gasdiesel\/\">EIA Gasoline &amp; Diesel Fuel Update<\/a>). AAA\u2019s 2024 holiday records corroborate sustained car\u2011trip demand (<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.aaa.com\/\">AAA<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Driving budgets and insurance dynamics matter more in 2025. Auto insurance premiums continued to rise faster than overall inflation, per the BLS motor vehicle insurance index (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/cpi.nr0.htm\">BLS CPI<\/a>), prompting more consumers to seek discounts and adopt telematics\/usage\u2011based insurance (UBI). Industry tracking reports record\/high UBI offers and adoption in 2025 as households look to offset higher base rates (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.transunion.com\/blog\/personal-lines-insurance-trends-q2-2025\">TransUnion<\/a>; discount fundamentals via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iii.org\/article\/auto-insurance-discounts\">Insurance Information Institute<\/a>). For travelers: pay\u2011per\u2011mile policies add cost directly with vacation mileage, while behavior\u2011based telematics can preserve discounts with safe, steady highway driving. On fuel, prices remained well below 2022 peaks\u2014often in the mid\u2011$3s to low\u2011$4s in 2024\u2014easing pressure on trip budgets (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/petroleum\/gasdiesel\/\">EIA price update<\/a>). As a planning rule, a 500\u2011mile round trip at 25 mpg uses ~20 gallons, so each $0.50\/gal swing moves fuel cost by ~+$10\/\u2212$10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The broader travel industry has recovered while drive\u2011to demand stays strong. International arrivals and receipts have largely returned to pre\u2011pandemic benchmarks with a positive outlook into 2025 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unwto.org\/tourism-data\/unwto-tourism-dashboard\">UNWTO Dashboard<\/a>). Car travel set holiday records in 2024 (<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.aaa.com\/\">AAA<\/a>), national recreation sites drew 325+ million visits in 2023 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/aboutus\/visitation-numbers.htm\">NPS<\/a>), and outdoor participation hit a record as more than 56% of Americans ages 6+ engaged in outdoor activities (<a href=\"https:\/\/outdoorindustry.org\">Outdoor Industry Association<\/a>). Public EV charging surpassed 180,000 ports in 2024, expanding feasible road\u2011trip options for EV owners (<a href=\"https:\/\/afdc.energy.gov\">DOE AFDC<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why road trips keep winning in 2025: flexibility, value, and easier planning. Consumers continue protecting spend on experiences and shifting trips into shoulder seasons to find value and avoid peak crowding (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mastercardservices.com\">Mastercard Economics Institute<\/a>). For budgeting, the IRS standard mileage rate of 67\u00a2\/mile for 2024 offers a practical proxy for all\u2011in driving costs, often competitive for families on short\u2011to\u2011medium routes (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\">IRS<\/a>). Structural U.S. car dependence (ACS commute shares) and elevated national VMT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhwa.dot.gov\/policyinformation\/travel_monitoring\/tvt.cfm\">FHWA<\/a>) support the continued primacy of driving for many leisure trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Early\u2011pandemic perspectives help frame how far demand has come. Despite being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/suzannerowankelleher\/2020\/06\/25\/aaa-coronavirus-will-wipe-out-150-million-summer-trips\/#6a792fb854a8\">down approximately 15% year-over-year in June 2020<\/a>, road\u2011trip interest recovered quickly. At the time, U.S. airport security throughput was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsa.gov\/travel\/passenger-volumes\">down over 80% year-over-year<\/a>, yet by July 7, 2024, TSA set an all\u2011time single\u2011day record of 3,013,413 screenings (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsa.gov\">TSA<\/a>). Globally, 2023 air passenger demand reached 94.1% of 2019 (domestic +3.9% vs. 2019; international 88.6%) and continued growing into 2024\u20132025 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iata.org\/en\/pressroom\/2024-releases\/2024-02-07-01\/\">IATA 2023 update<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iata.org\/en\/iata-repository\/publications\/economic-reports\/air-passenger-monthly-analysis\/\">monthly analysis<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Short\u2011term rentals have normalized from pandemic extremes. Recent results highlight renewed urban and cross\u2011border momentum on Airbnb alongside steady leisure demand (<a href=\"https:\/\/investors.airbnb.com\/financials\/quarterly-results\/default.aspx\">Airbnb Investor Relations<\/a>). The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airdna.co\">AirDNA 2025 U.S. outlook<\/a> points to stable occupancy, balanced supply growth, and low single\u2011digit ADR trends, while new rules in key markets (e.g., EU data\u2011sharing regime) increase transparency and compliance expectations (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/en\/press\/press-releases\/2024\/03\/04\/short-term-rentals-council-adopts-new-rules-to-increase-transparency\/\">Council of the EU<\/a>). For families and groups, entire\u2011home listings remain cost\u2011effective relative to multiple hotel rooms, depending on trip length and party size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recent survey conducted in Massachusetts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/coronavirus\/2020\/06\/poll-as-mass-reports-lowest-rate-of-coronavirus-transmission-in-the-us-majority-of-residents-still-wary-of-plane-travel-using-public-transportation-and-eating-out.html\">74% of respondents said they are wary of traveling by air<\/a> due to the threat of coronavirus, and this seems to align nationally as many people are proactively avoiding flying until the pandemic is under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That early\u20112020 caution has since shifted: today, TSA volumes repeatedly set records (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsa.gov\/travel\/passenger-volumes\">TSA<\/a>), traveler intent to fly over the next six months is high, and price\/reliability\u2014not health\u2014drive hesitancy (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ustravel.org\">U.S. Travel TIPS<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/morningconsult.com\/industry\/travel-hospitality\/\">Morning Consult<\/a>). These sentiment trends align with the operational reality of record screenings in 2024 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsa.gov\">TSA<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in a recent interview that <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"he doesn't expect travel to ever look the same as it did leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/airbnb-travel-coronavirus-3f7ac17c-89d7-4ba6-9b5b-8905e4aa888a.html\" target=\"_blank\">he doesn&#8217;t expect travel to ever look the same as it did leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>. Recent company updates also highlight strong urban and cross\u2011border demand as international travel normalizes (<a href=\"https:\/\/investors.airbnb.com\/financials\/quarterly-results\/default.aspx\">Airbnb Investor Relations<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;People are not getting on airplanes, they&#8217;re not crossing borders, they&#8217;re not meaningfully traveling to cities, they&#8217;re not traveling for business. They&#8217;re getting in cars. They&#8217;re traveling to communities that are 200 miles away or less. These are usually very small communities. They&#8217;re staying in homes and they&#8217;re staying longer,&#8221; The CEO said.  &#8220;People will, one day, get back on planes, but one of the things that I do think is a fairly permanent shift is a redistribution of where travelers go.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Survey demographics (2020 baseline):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>906 respondents, US residents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>51.9% female respondents, 48.1% male respondents<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>49.5% were between the ages of 18-44, 50.5% were 45+<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since our original 2020 survey of 906 U.S. residents, high\u2011frequency indicators show a full rebound and evolution in how Americans travel. U.S. airport throughput set new records in 2024 (TSA screened 3,013,413 passengers in a single day) and remains elevated heading into 2025 (TSA record day; ongoing TSA checkpoint volumes). Global passenger demand continues to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":349300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1266],"tags":[],"post_author":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>2025 Travel Trends: 81% of US residents planning a vacation say they will travel by car - Reviews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We surveyed 906 US residents on their plans for summer 2020 travel and found several emerging trends. 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