I’m ready to soar!
Americans are getting antsy and want to get out of the house.
At SurveyMonkey we are always curious. Not just about a particular result but about the trend that is behind the number.
Get me to normal, stat!
And when it comes to getting back to doing what Americans do best - moving around the country, connecting and being entertained - the trend is unmistakably sky-bound. We surveyed over 2500 people in April 2021, and asked them about getting back to normal - we asked a similar question in the middle of last year. The response in April is “heck yeah, we’re ready!” Ready to go to a big concert, ready to eat at an indoor restaurant, ready to visit a bar, and ready to fly.
In July of 2020 just 27% of consumers we surveyed said they were feeling comfortable enough to fly.
Overall, in April 2021 that number reached 50%, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still advising against all but essential travel. This level of anticipation will be warmly received by the US airline industry, currently losing $150 million a day.
The business of flying for business
There’s no question that business travel has been badly affected over the past year. It’s currently at 10%-15% of normal levels. But we wanted to know whether people want to travel again for business.
Once the pandemic is over, 58% of respondents said they’d like to get back to the amount of business travel they used to do. Among GenX it’s even higher, at 66%. 54% of the people we talked to expected to actually go back to traveling for work within 6 months, many even earlier.
Take that, Zoom!
Interestingly, twice as many Republican voters - 26% - than Democrats - 11% - think they will be traveling for work in the next couple of weeks. Who knew Dems would be the homebodies....
Research from McKinsey confirms that urgency to get back on the road, especially among sales-focused organizations, where a face-to-face meeting can often close a challenging deal. Assuming, of course, both parties are comfortable with such encounters and can actually find an open office to meet in.
If sales-driven travel is first out of the gate, there’s no such comfort for Industry events and conferences. A combination of significantly squeezed travel budgets, greatly improved online conference applications and the lingering worries about large groups gathering indoors means that such events are unlikely to come back until 2022.
McKinsey lays out the challenge for event planners: “Once events do resume, they will look different. Sales-oriented conferences and trade-show exhibitions may be the first to return to in-person formats. But many events will offer virtual, hybrid, or multilocal models with abbreviated in-person schedules, and they will move from destination cities to regional industry hubs. Venues will need to be modified to allow physical distancing.”
Life is short, let’s make it worthwhile
So, Americans are ready to resume normal life again, and they have the money to do it. 77% of our respondents said their household spending was the same amount or less during the pandemic. They are anxious to visit friends and family - even business colleagues - and enjoy life. As one traveler said recently, “Life is so short—I feel like I need to take this opportunity. I don’t know when I may have it again.”