Amex Trendex Data: 3 in 4 consumers say travel is one of the top activities they miss most

Not traveling continues to take an emotional toll on U.S. consumers, according to the Amex Trendex, a new report from American Express.

Four in five respondents (78%) say traveling is one of the top activities that they miss the most right now and nearly half (48%) believe not being able to travel is making them feel anxious and stressed.

The results come from an online poll conducted by Morning Consult between July 21 and July 23, 2020 among a national sample of 2,000 general population travelers with a household income of at least $70K and defined as adults who traveled by air at least once in 2019. Results from the survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Consumers also remain hesitant to travel for upcoming holidays: only 10% of respondents are planning to travel for Labor Day, while 1 in 5 (20%) are planning to travel for Thanksgiving.

The Amex Trendex also revealed that respondents prefer group travel over solo travel. After spending more time at home together over the past few months, consumers are more likely to travel with members of their households (67%) than by themselves (10%) once restrictions are lifted.

4 in 5 consumers (77%) prefer to book online on their own but would like to have a real person available to help and 6 in 10 respondents (61%) are willing to pay more for a plane or train that has every other seat free.

Consumers value flexibility and cleanliness when traveling. Increased flexibility for refunds/ travel changes is most important when booking travel in the future (25%) followed by cleanliness standards (19%).

American Express Travel found similar trends when looking at U.S. Card Member booking data for travel booked through them over the last month.

Over half of hotel bookings (52%) in July were made at hotels within the Card Members’ home state or out of state but local regional travel (compared to 33% in July 2019), while  90% of lodging bookings and 79% of air bookings were domestic (between 6/08/2020 – 7/05/2020).