U.S. households plan more travel
U.S. leisure travel spending is projected to hit a record $5,704 per household in 2026, with households planning an average of 3.87 vacations over the next year — a clear signal that demand remains strong. That spending is showing up even as consumers grow more price‑sensitive, so creators should expect audiences to plan more deliberately and choose value-driven content. (hotelnewsresource.com)
Americans are still booking trips even while getting pickier about what they pay for. A new MMGY Travel Intelligence survey says U.S. households now expect to spend $5,704 on leisure travel over the next 12 months and take 3.87 vacations on average, both record highs in that survey. (mmgyintel.com) This is not a tiny niche poll. MMGY says the spring 2026 edition of its Portrait of American Travelers survey is based on more than 4,500 U.S. adults, and it found that 67% expect to take a trip in the next six months. (mmgyintel.com) The surprise is that bigger travel budgets are showing up at the same time as tighter household caution. Deloitte said in February 2026 that more than half of Americans planned holiday travel in the 2025 to 2026 season, but many were already cutting trip length, distance, hotel class, and on-the-ground spending. (deloitte.com) That helps explain why demand can stay high without every part of the trip getting more expensive. People are still protecting the trip itself, then trimming around the edges like seat class, number of nights, or what they do after arrival. (deloitte.com) The travel industry has been leaning on this exact behavior for years. The U.S. Travel Association said domestic leisure travel was forecast to grow 1.9% to $895 billion in 2025, with spending supported by American consumers even as sentiment stayed worried about inflation and the broader economy. (ustravel.org) The new MMGY data shows where that money is going first. Hawaii, Florida, and California ranked as the top states Americans want to visit, which points to familiar warm-weather destinations winning over riskier or more complicated plans. (mmgyintel.com) International travel is coming back too. MMGY found that 36% of U.S. travelers plan an overseas trip in the next six months, which it called the strongest level since before 2020. (mmgyintel.com) That lines up with the industry’s longer calendar. The U.S. Travel Association said international visits to the United States are projected to resume growth in 2026, with major events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup helping pull more travel into the system. (ustravel.org) Planning is changing almost as fast as spending. MMGY found that 50% of U.S. leisure travelers have used artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini to plan travel, with usage rising to 76% for Generation Z adults and 68% for millennials. (mmgyintel.com) The old travel funnel is still there, but the entry points are shifting. MMGY says 44% of travelers get destination ideas from articles and 36% from social media posts, which means inspiration is increasingly getting filtered through search boxes, feeds, and recommendation tools before anyone opens an airline site. (mmgyintel.com) So the picture for 2026 is not “travel is booming” in the simple post-pandemic sense. It looks more like households are defending travel as a priority purchase, while acting like comparison shoppers on everything around it. (mmgyintel.com)
