This report explores the travel and tourism market in the US, with a focus on consumer vacation plans and priorities. Dividing consumers into four demographic/attitudinal segments, this report gives a complete review of the preferences of Americans when traveling. Below, we’ve summarized the key topics covered and offer hand-selected findings from the report.
In 2024, despite inflation consumers are looking to travel more, with rough economic conditions increasingly in the rear view. Looking ahead to 2025-26, business travel should fully recover, pending continued improvements, and leisure will resume its importance to leisure travel overall. Following this, inbound tourism should increase as foreign economies stabilize, bringing in the final puzzle piece.
Travel intent remains similar to last year. 83% of consumers intend to travel on an overnight leisure trip in 2024. With consumers prioritizing travel spending in their budget, this reflects that vacations are seen as a necessity or even an investment in their mental and physical wellbeing.
More consumers are planning all types of vacations in 2024, such as within the US or with family, when compared with those who planned the same types in 2023. This indicates a robust year for travel. With a large number also visiting previous destinations, this provides an opportunity for hotels to lock in the loyalty of repeat guests.
Find comprehensive data-backed analysis in your copy of the full report. You can also browse our other travel market research.
Expert travel analyst Mike Gallinari delivers industry insights with this in-depth report.
Revenge travel may be over, but that doesn’t mean travel has abated. Rather, consumers are traveling more, demanding seamlessness from travel brands along the way.
Mike Gallinari
Senior Travel & Leisure Analyst
Mintel is the world’s leading market intelligence agency. We show you how consumers think today and tomorrow. As a trusted partner to industry leaders, we deliver game-changing insights to businesses across the globe, fuelling their marketing and innovation strategies that will shape the future.
Access high-quality market research with every purchase of Mintel’s consumer reports. Here’s what else is included in your report purchase:
From consumer reports to customised growth strategies. We have an option to suit your business requirements.
Find out more£ 3,695
The US multicultural population continues to grow, accounting for about four in 10 Americans. This makes identifying diverse cultural needs and preferences necessary for travel brands to understand...
Find out more£ 3,695
As in 2024, 84% of consumers plan to take a vacation in the coming year. While a steady share may be interpreted as stagnant growth, this high intent...
Find out more£ 3,695
Special interest and event travel has a strong foundation, appealing to both a person's individual passions and the widespread desire to travel. As such, one industry estimate has...
Find out more£ 3,695
70% of employed adults traveled for business in the last year, giving players in the business travel sector – especially the MICE subset – confidence that recovery had...
Find out more£ 3,695
The transportation industry remains diverse and adaptive, anchored by the dominance of personal vehicles, with 89% of consumers having used this method of transportation in the past year....
Find out more£ 3,695
Human activity have caused global temperatures to rise, causing disruption to Earth's ecosystems and the lives of its inhabitants. The need to rapidly address the problem persists, even...
Find out more
We have such a great working relationship with Mintel on lots of different levels. As an insight partner, they have helped us to develop our business planning in specific categories as well as supporting our creative process but they’ve also been super helpful with facilitating our events in their inspirational offices near St Paul’s.
They’re an innovative company, with a client-focused team that always delivers.
We use Mintel Reports, mostly for financial services and ecommerce markets, plus a few retail and technology ones.
As a leading payments provider, we value additional insights into consumer behaviour, opinions and trends that are shaping the many different markets we operate in. Mintel is a very good and very quick way for us to obtain those insights.
We use Mintel to get a view on where a particular market is going, which can support us in product development and help us identify opportunities or indeed risks, it is a very useful barometer of a market’s potential.
We’ve found it so useful working more closely with Mintel. They helped support our recent flagship event for our top suppliers by providing a really unique viewpoint on the future of online retailing.
Nick Carroll from their Retail Team was also an excellent panelist, sharing useful and actionable consumer insights. We definitely look forward to working with Mintel again on future projects.
One of the biggest challenges we face is the need to get smart on a business or category real quick.
We are talking to clients who live and breathe their category every day and the expectation is that we will be able to get caught up very quickly, and bring the thinking that can help them.
We need to do that often in a matter of days, so it’s not a small ask. Mintel gives us a very articulate view of category conditions and does so at the speed we need it.
Mintel helps us when we want to know something quickly – it provides fast answers to our questions. If we need to get a view of what’s going on in a particular market it’s very useful.
When carrying out background research, I find Mintel an excellent starting point.
The fact that it covers so many markets is a big plus for me– instead of having to buy specialist products in each area we are interested in, especially when we only require a brief view on a particular market, we can go to Mintel for help as a one-stop shop. I find Mintel a useful and valuable resource.
From consumer reports to customised growth strategies. We have an option to suit your business requirements.
Find out more
