Nearly two years into the pandemic, people are hoping to get "back to normal" on family travel, but where to travel may depend entirely on a family’s view on COVID-19 vaccinations, according to New York University's 2021 U.S. Family Travel Survey.
“In our sample, 88 percent of parents are likely or very likely to travel with their children in the next 12 months,” researchers said in the survey released this week by the school of professional studies.
Parents who said they would not be traveling in the next year were asked what factors led up to their decision and at least three of the top five responses were COVID-related.
Seventy percent said they could not afford to travel; 29 percent said not everyone in their family was vaccinated against COVID-19; 24 percent said they do not feel safe traveling; 21 percent said travel and dining restrictions created by the pandemic made travel less desirable and 14 percent said traveling with children was not relaxing for them.
While travel plans and cancellations were similar across fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated families, the data showed one drastic difference—theme parks.
Seventy percent of unvaccinated families said, in the next 12 months, they plan to visit a theme or water park. Only 50 percent of vaccinated families had the same answer.
Survey co-author Dr. Lynn Minnart said the difference could be related to how serious people believe the pandemic to be and how they feel about the need for continuing restrictions.
"What we also see is that unvaccinated families show much less concern about how many people are vaccinated in destinations or whether there are any health protocols in place," she said. "They just seem to be looking more for places where there fewest restrictions and where 'we can have vacations like we used to have.'"
The survey noted that for all families questioned, the only places higher in preference than theme parks were family get-togethers and beach vacations.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant effect on travel based on the survey’s findings. In 2020 only 44 percent of respondents took a family trip—down 26 percent from those surveyed in the U.S. Family Travel Survey of 2019.
In 2020 some 80 percent of people surveyed said they made changes to their travel plans because of the pandemic and 64 percent said they chose to completely cancel or postpone their plans.
The U.S. Family Travel Survey 2021 was released by the NYU School of Professional Studies. To read the full report, click here.
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