As summer approaches, consumers appear to be warming up to vacations and road trips, according to a new Deloitte survey.
Almost one-third (31 percent) of survey respondents plan to take a leisure trip during the Memorial Day weekend, up from the 24 percent who said they traveled a year ago during the same period. In addition, 17 percent of consumers surveyed expect to take a longer break than they did last year.
Highways may be busy during the Memorial Day weekend, as suggested by the eight out of 10 respondents (81 percent) who plan to travel by car and 19 percent traveling by air. Nearly half (49 percent) of those traveling also plan to stay at a hotel and almost one-third (30 percent) expect to spend their nights with friends or relatives.
As for summer travel, nearly six out of 10 (59 percent) survey respondents plan to take a trip between June 1 and Labor Day, which is flat compared with the share of respondents who said they made trips a year ago. The survey reveals that more than one-quarter (26 percent) expect to spend more money on their summer trips than they spent last year, while nearly half (49 percent) plan to spend the same amount.
The survey was commissioned by Deloitte and conducted online by an independent research company between April 27 and May 5. The survey polled a nationally representative sample of 1,001 consumers.
