Survey: People Traveling Again But Avoiding Planes, International Trips

Survey: People Traveling Again But Avoiding Planes, International Trips

Published July 8th, 2020 - 07:30 GMT











Highlights





With US coastal towns a favorite destination, occupancy among 600 US hotels that Oracle tracks has risen for five straight weeks and recently hit its highest levels since mid-March.







Travelers are hitting the road again and taking vacations even as the coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of abating in many countries, a survey on Tuesday showed.

About 51% of people in North America and Latin America plan to book trips in the next six months, compared with 38% in Asia and Europe, according to the survey by software maker Oracle Corp.

However, travelers want to stay close to home, preferring to drive and to avoid international trips.

Due to travel restrictions and lengthy lockdowns in many countries to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, tens of thousands of hotels have closed and occupancy levels have fallen below 20% for weeks, said Alex Alt, general manager of Oracle Hospitality.

"One thing that's refreshing is that consumers want to travel,“ he told Reuters. "There is a resilience and an appetite to be on the road, to explore, to experience.“

With US coastal towns a favorite destination, occupancy among 600 US hotels