One fascinating aspect of the timeshare industry is that its very existence is built up around several fundamental beliefs about how people like to travel and spend their time while on vacation. The timeshare system is built around routine, about the idea of using one or two resort locations as a getaway year after year (with some flexibility built in, of course, in the form of the exchange market).
But vacation destinations and methods go in and out of style all the time, like cars or fashions; a lot of factors go into determining the so-called ‘ideal vacation’ at any given time, including the health of the economy and the state of technology (it can’t be stressed enough, for example, how much the rise of app culture has affected the workings of the travel and hospitality industries).
So how are Americans planning to travel right now? And what are they planning to do when they get to their dream destination? We’ve got some interesting answers, in the form of a recent survey on vacationing from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, brought to our attention by U.S. News & World Report.
The biggest takeaway is that Americans this year are prioritizing “hammocks over hikes;” that’s a catchier way of saying that “almost three-fourths of Americans say resting and relaxing is very or extremely important to them when they go on vacation,” according to the AP report.
But it should be noted that people do still want to travel in order to get in their relaxation time: Of those who are planning on a summer vacation, 92% are going away and only 8% are making it a staycation, with more than 50% of all people surveyed claiming that “relaxing at home doesn’t count as a real vacation.”
Of course, many people aren’t going to be getting the chance to take off at all this year: According to the survey, “43% of Americans won’t take a summer vacation, with 49% of non-vacationers saying they can’t afford it” and another 11% saying that “they can’t take time off from work.”
Perhaps this is why those Americans who are planning to travel are prioritizing time and comfort over spending more on luxury trips: According to the AP, “time is the luxury most people desire” right now, and “half of the public expects to spend less than $1,000 for their summer holiday.”
In all, this survey paints an interesting portrait of the American public and its opinions on travelling right now, and the full findings – which also include responses on lodging preferences and the state of the airline industry – are well worth a look here.