Nearly a Third of U.S. Travelers Defer Plans as Uncertainty Grows: Skift Research Survey
Photo Credit: Empty airports like this one depicted here at Boston's Logan Airport will be a more common sight as the coronavirus unfolds. Flickr / Karl Baron
Skift Take
As coronavirus creeps closer to most Americans, more will cancel and defer travel. The data isn't good, but it's still less scary than the end-of-the-world social media posts would have you believe.
The slow but steady drumbeat of coronavirus diagnoses is raising the anxiety of U.S. travelers this week. Trip cancellations rose as the situation in the U.S. deteriorated.
Still, most Americans refuse to throw in the towel on travel altogether and are waiting to see how the situation will evolve. Eighty-one percent of Americans with previously booked travel plans are still holding onto their reservations for now, down from 88 percent last week.
What's more, 29 percent said they had deferred travel plans.
Skift Research is continuing its data-driven approach to tracking the impact of coronavirus on the travel industry by updating our polling of the U.S. traveling public. Our second coronavirus cancellation poll of the U.S. online adult population was conducted from Mar. 6–8. We reached 460 Americans who had previously booked travel plans. Of that traveling population, 19 percent had canceled due to concerns around coronavirus.
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