A new survey of more than 1,500 U.S. adults finds that the summer travel market is holding together — but not for everyone, and not in the ways the headline numbers suggest.
The Surface Story Looks Reassuring
Most Americans plan to travel this summer. Roughly two-thirds say they will definitely or probably take a domestic vacation, and nearly half expect to spend more on travel than they did last year. Hotels remain the default lodging choice. Domestic U.S. vacations are the most popular trip type by a wide margin.
On the surface, that looks like a healthy travel economy. Dig a little deeper, and a more complicated picture emerges — one defined less by wanderlust than by wallet size, and shaped by a set of quiet financial adaptations that the headline numbers tend to obscure.
Restraint, Not Enthusiasm, Is the Dominant Force
When asked specifically how rising prices have changed their travel spending, 39.4% of respondents say they are spending less on vacations because things cost more — nearly twice the share (22.4%) who say they are spending more despite higher prices. The remaining 30% report no real change.
That asymmetry matters. The dominant financial force acting on American summer travel right now is restraint. A resilient upper tier is absorbing higher costs and, in some cases, upgrading their trips. A larger, more financially pressured group is quietly scaling back — choosing cheaper destinations, cheaper lodging, and cheaper ways to get there — or hovering at the threshold of the travel market, unable to commit to plans at all.
The Income Divide Is the Sharpest Gradient in the Data
No single variable produces a more consistent or dramatic split than household income.
Among households earning $100,000 or more, 34.0% say they are spending more on travel despite higher prices — nearly matched by the 33.3% who say they are spending less. The two groups are roughly in balance. Among households earning under $50,000, the picture is starkly different: 51.7% report spending less because of higher prices, while only 14.8% say they are spending more. The "spending less" bar is more than three times the size of "spending more."
The income divide also shapes how people travel, not just whether they do. Higher earners are far more likely to fly — 41.6% of those earning $150,000 or more plan to take a plane, compared with just 21.3% of those earning under $50,000. Lower-income travelers are significantly more likely to drive, stay with friends or family, or camp. These are not simply preference differences; they are budget optimization decisions made under real financial pressure.
The Generation Gap: Older Adults Pull Back, Younger Adults Lean In
Age produces the single largest gap in trip-type preferences. Among adults aged 60 and older, 60.8% name a domestic U.S. vacation as their most likely summer trip. Among 18–29-year-olds, that figure is just 30.9%. Younger adults are far more likely to be planning international vacations (24.0% vs. 10.5% for the 60+ group) or cruises (21.5% vs. 9.4%).
This generational divergence is not simply a matter of taste. Older adults are also more likely to report price-driven cutbacks — 45.7% of the 55+ group says they are spending less because of higher prices — and they are the least likely to expect to spend more than last summer (39.9%). The 35–54 cohort, by contrast, is the most financially resilient: only 38.5% report price-driven cutbacks, and 27.9% say they are spending more despite higher prices, the highest rate of any age group.
The picture that emerges is one where younger adults are ambitious but squeezed, older adults are cautious and pulling back, and middle-aged adults — often in peak earning years — are the group most able to absorb the cost of travel without changing their plans.
Families With Kids: The Surprising Bright Spot
If older adults and lower-income households represent the more constrained end of the travel spectrum, households with two or more children under 18 represent the other. This group is, counterintuitively, the most travel-active segment in the entire survey.
78.9% of households with 2+ children under 18 say a domestic vacation is likely this summer, and 60.9% say an international trip is likely — compared with 56.9% and 32.5%, respectively, among childless households. A full 65.8% of multi-child households expect to spend more on vacation travel than last year, and 38.1% say they are spending more despite higher prices, both the highest figures of any subgroup.
The explanation is partly structural. Families with school-age children face a narrow, non-negotiable summer travel window — the school calendar creates a "use it or lose it" dynamic that makes parents more willing to absorb higher costs rather than skip the trip. These families are also adapting their logistics: they are more likely to drive than fly, and more likely to use short-term rentals that offer more space than a single hotel room. The commitment to travel is high; the approach is pragmatic.
The Hidden Signals: What the Headline Numbers Miss
Planning uncertainty as a financial barometer
Across trip type, lodging choice, and travel mode, the "not sure yet" response is consistently highest among the most financially pressured groups. Among households earning under $50,000, 14.7% say they are "not sure yet" about their trip type — more than six times the rate of the $100K–$149K group (2.3%). On lodging, 15.3% of the under-$50K group is undecided, compared with just 2.5% of those earning $150,000 or more.
This is not indecision for its own sake. For a meaningful share of lower-income travelers, the survey question "what kind of trip are you planning?" is premature — the prior question, "can I afford to go at all?", hasn't been resolved yet. These respondents are not dropouts from the travel market; they are people hovering at the threshold, waiting to see if the math works out. That behavioral state — neither committed nor withdrawn — suggests the true share of financially constrained travelers is larger than the "spending less" figures alone would indicate.
What "spending more" actually means
The finding that nearly half of respondents expect to spend more on travel this summer than last year sounds like a strong demand signal. It deserves scrutiny. A traveler who books the same hotel in the same city for the same number of nights as last summer, but pays 15–20% more because room rates have increased, will report "spending more" in a survey. Nothing about their travel behavior has changed; only the price has.
The 22.4% who say they are spending more despite higher prices is a more honest measure of genuine demand resilience. The travel industry should be cautious about reading the broader "spending more" figures as evidence of a demand boom. What the data more reliably shows is that a resilient upper tier is holding firm, a financially pressured lower tier is cutting back, and the nominal spending figures in the middle are doing some work that inflation is responsible for.
Travel is not the only thing being cut
Travel spending does not exist in a vacuum. The survey also captures how household spending has changed across a broader range of categories, and the pattern is consistent: roughly 27–39% of respondents report spending less across multiple household categories simultaneously. For lower-income households, this creates a compounding dynamic — they are absorbing price increases across food, housing, and other non-discretionary categories at the same time, leaving even less room for discretionary travel. The financial constraint on summer travel is not just about airfare and hotel rates; it is about the total household budget being squeezed from multiple directions at once.
The Quiet Adaptations: Restructuring the Trip Without Canceling It
Perhaps the most underappreciated finding in the data is the range of financial adaptations that don't show up in the headline spending numbers but are clearly shaping how Americans structure their summer trips.
Staying with friends or family is the second most common lodging choice, cited by 14.1% of trip-planners. Campgrounds and RV parks account for another 8.5%. Together, roughly one in four summer travelers is choosing a lodging type that dramatically reduces or eliminates the accommodation cost of their trip — without necessarily registering as "spending less" in a direct survey question.
The income gradient on lodging reinforces this interpretation. Lower-income households are significantly less likely to stay in hotels (35.8%) than the $100K–$149K group (49.7%), and more likely to stay with friends or family or camp. Families with two or more children under 18 are more likely to use short-term rentals like Airbnb or VRBO — a choice driven partly by the practical need for more space, but also by the economics of booking a single rental property versus multiple hotel rooms. For these families, the short-term rental is simultaneously a comfort upgrade and a cost optimization.
Taken together, the lodging data suggests that the financial adaptation happening in the summer travel market is more widespread and more creative than the headline figures capture. People are not simply spending less or spending more — they are restructuring how they travel to preserve the experience while managing the cost.
What the Data Tells Us — and What It Doesn't
This survey captures a travel market in transition. The overall numbers look reasonably healthy: most people plan to travel, most expect to spend the same or more, and domestic tourism remains robust. But beneath those averages, the financial pressure is real and unevenly distributed.
The groups most likely to be scaling back — lower-income households and older adults — are not a small or marginal slice of the population. They represent a substantial share of American adults, and their retreat from travel spending has real implications for the hospitality, airline, and tourism industries that depend on broad-based consumer participation.
The groups most likely to be holding firm or spending more — higher-income households, families with young children, adults in their peak earning years — are sustaining the market. But the nominal spending figures that make the season look healthy are doing some work that inflation is responsible for, and the planning uncertainty concentrated among lower-income households suggests that a meaningful share of potential travelers has not yet decided whether they can afford to go at all.
The summer of 2025 may look, in aggregate, like a normal travel season. The story underneath is considerably more divided.
Based on a closed survey of 1,531 U.S. adults. Results are unweighted and directional; some subgroup comparisons involve smaller bases and should be interpreted with appropriate caution.