Not terribly surprising, but surveys in global travel economy show that the U.S. is the most popular destination for world travelers, as reported by the L.A. Times. Also not too surprising is that while the U.S. was the most popular destination in 2014 and the most popular planned destination for 2015, further inquiry received input that if money wasn’t being factored into travel planning, Australia would win out over the U.S. Then the U.S. and third, Italy. Would any of those countries be a top choice of yours?
The survey included 44,000 travelers worldwide and discovered that 67% of its U.S. travelers plan on taking an international trip this year, up from 50% the previous year. This corroborates reported predictions from Airlines for America about U.S. travel in the spring increasing about 2% this year from last. Airlines for America is a trade group of U.S. air carriers.
They predicted that this increase in travel could be attributed to a rising U.S. employment rate, incomes, and better economic health. The economic recession of 2009 definitely dampened things, pulling the total domestic travel numbers far down, so this is a good sign. Now especially, with the euro’s downward fall to its record 12-year low against the U.S. dollar (€1.0562 to $1), travel to Europe is more profitable for U.S. travelers. This could also be another factor in this positive change for the travel industry.
Airlines for America’s chief economist, John Heimlich said that the organization believes that spring travel will rival 2007, the peak of U.S. spring travel.” In 2014, a record high of over 98 million people traveled to international destinations via U.S. airlines. Also, 662 million flew on domestic flights, which is the highest total since 2007.
The surge of travel is great for the airline industry, but the question lies in whether the airlines are able to keep up with the record high demand. Airlines for America said “airlines are increasing the number of seats by 3% or 64,000 seats per day during this period. There is a need for airlines to rise to the occasion and improve airline infrastructure.
