Cautionary Tale: U.S. Travel Momentum is Slowing
July 27, 2021 ctn_admin
The U.S. was in a travel boom a month ago. But concerns about the Delta variant seem to be taking a lot of wind out of the American travel sails.
According to the latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travellers, a quarter are postponing travel because of the recent increased spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. With coronavirus case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths on the rise again, support among travellers for opening their communities to visitors also has dropped from a peak of 67% in early June to 57% today.
Confidence in the safety of eating in local restaurants and shopping in local retail locations has suffered a similar decline, from three-fourths to only two-thirds of travellers.
“We may be approaching a new pandemic tipping point, in the battle between the more transmissible Delta variant and the power of vaccinations to prevent or at least lessen the impact of infections,” said Amir Eylon, President and CEO of Longwoods International. “Hopefully awareness of the potentially severe impact of this new variant will motivate unvaccinated Americans to protect themselves, their families and their communities by taking the shot.”
With a decline in confidence in welcoming visitors into communities, we also see travellers express strong support for requiring vaccinations for inbound international travellers arriving in the U.S. More than half would require vaccinations for all international travellers to the U.S. and another 14% would make that a requirement for visitors arriving from “high-risk” countries.
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