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• Published: 23 September 2021

A database of travel-related behaviors and attitudes before, during, and after COVID-19 in the United States

• Rishabh Singh Chauhan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7188-557X 1 ,
• Matthew Wigginton Bhagat-Conway   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1210-2982 2 ,
• Denise Capasso da Silva   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1414-8439 3 ,
• Deborah Salon   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2240-8408 2 ,
• Ali Shamshiripour 1 ,
• Ehsan Rahimi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8649-7542 1 ,
• Sara Khoeini 3 ,
• Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3595-3664 1 ,
• Sybil Derrible   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2939-6016 1 &
• Ram Pendyala 3  

Scientific Data volume  8 , Article number:  245 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted billions of people around the world. To capture some of these impacts in the United States, we are conducting a nationwide longitudinal survey collecting information about activity and travel-related behaviors and attitudes before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey questions cover a wide range of topics including commuting, daily travel, air travel, working from home, online learning, shopping, and risk perception, along with attitudinal, socioeconomic, and demographic information. The survey is deployed over multiple waves to the same respondents to monitor how behaviors and attitudes evolve over time. Version 1.0 of the survey contains 8,723 responses that are publicly available. This article details the methodology adopted for the collection, cleaning, and processing of the data. In addition, the data are weighted to be representative of national and regional demographics. This survey dataset can aid researchers, policymakers, businesses, and government agencies in understanding both the extent of behavioral shifts and the likelihood that changes in behaviors will persist after COVID-19.

Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.15141945

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Background & summary.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world, infecting tens of millions and killing over one million people 1 . By March 2021, the United States (U.S.) had recorded the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 related deaths in the world 1 . Since social distancing is one of the most effective measures in containing the spread of the infection 2 , several U.S. states issued various restrictions including stay at home orders. Moreover, numerous restaurants and bars closed for dine-in services, various recreation facilities were shut down, many offices and schools switched from meeting in-person to meeting online, and travel restrictions were imposed. These measures had a profound impact on how people in the U.S. went about their daily lives.

To understand the current and future impacts of the pandemic, we conducted a nationwide online survey. The goal of the survey is to capture attitudes and shifts in travel-related choices of people across the nation both during the pandemic and once COVID-19 is no longer a threat. The data are shared publicly in order to help government agencies and businesses prepare for the future. We are conducting additional survey waves with the same respondents to monitor how people’s choices evolve over the course of the pandemic and beyond.

An early version of the survey took place from April to June 2020, when the stay at home orders were in place in most parts of the country 3 , 4 ; this portion of the data collection is referenced as Wave 1 A . A slightly-modified larger-scale survey, Wave 1B ,was deployed between late June and October 2020. Subsequent survey waves are being conducted as the situation evolves. The collected data are released as they become available and necessary procedures for cleaning, documenting, and weighting the data are completed. This procedures for data processing are detailed in this paper. The present article focuses on data from the first wave of the survey.

In the months following the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, several efforts have been made to collect data related to COVID-19. In fact, many datasets have been compiled, specifically on COVID-19 testing 5 , medical imaging of COVID-19 cases 6 , the timeline of government interventions 7 , policy announcements 8 , implementation and relaxation of public health and social measures 9 , epidemiological data 10 , mobility-related data 11 , and out-of-home activity information 12 , to name a few. Researchers also turned to social media platforms, like Twitter and Instagram, to gather COVID-19-related data 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 . Furthermore, several surveys have been conducted to measure the impacts of the pandemic 17 , 18 , 19 , some of which are now released for public use 20 , 21 .

Our survey data are different from most others in several ways. First, it is comprehensive insofar as it includes data about a wide range of topics including commuting, daily travel, air travel, working from home, online learning, shopping, attitudes, risk perception, and socioeconomic and demographic details. Second, it captures detailed information about behaviors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the choices that people expect to make when the COVID-19 virus is no longer a threat. Third, it was collected from respondents across the U.S., covering diverse socio-economic backgrounds, professions, education levels, and ages. Fourth, the survey is a true longitudinal panel survey, collecting data in multiple waves from the same individuals at regular intervals. Finally, the data are made publicly available to promote data-driven analysis and research.

The next section describes the data collection methodology, the questions included in the survey, the survey deployment process, and the participant recruitment strategy. Next, the data records section describes the data file types and metadata. Subsequently, the technical validation section explains the procedure for the survey data cleaning and weighting. Lastly, the final section provides additional notes for data users.

Ethical compliance

Our study protocol was approved by both Arizona State University (ASU) and University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Institutional Review Board offices. Participants were informed that their participation is voluntary, and that their responses are shared anonymously. An online informed consent was obtained from everyone who responded to the survey.

Survey questions

The data were collected through an extensive online survey with over 120 questions. The survey questions can be broadly divided into three categories: (1) retrospective questions focusing on the period before COVID-19, (2) questions about the period during COVID-19, and (3) prospective questions on respondent expectations for a future period in which COVID-19 is no longer a threat. The questions cover a wide variety of subjects including commuting habits, discretionary travel choices, work-related questions, study-related questions, shopping, dining, and so on – all before, during, and expected after the pandemic.

The survey questions can be classified into eight categories based on question subject type, namely: demographics, work, study, shopping and dining, transportation, and general attitudes. Table  1 describes each of these categories.

Survey recruitment

From April to mid-June 2020, initial Wave 1A responses were collected from a convenience sample via mailing lists, social media outreach, and mainstream media articles. A total of 1,110 responses were collected during this phase.

From late June onward, Wave 1B, the modified version of the survey, was deployed through survey invitations sent to a random email list purchased from a data marketing company. The list contained 350,000 email addresses belonging to people in 24 metropolitan areas across the U.S., as well as the state of Ohio (see Fig.  1 ). We purchased 100,000 additional email addresses of people randomly selected from across the country, including rural areas and excluding the areas covered by the first 350,000 emails. A total of 1,116 responses were received from the email list. Unfortunately, major email service providers quickly began marking our survey invitations as spam, while some smaller providers did not. While we took several steps to mitigate this issue, including changing the wording of the emails, changing the source of the emails (a uic.edu, asu.edu, or covidfuture.org email address), we were ultimately not able to fully solve this problem and saw a lower response rate from individuals with addresses from major email providers.

Distribution of survey respondents by the state of residence for survey dataset version 1.0. Alaska and Hawai’i are in the same weighting division as California, Oregon, and Washington.

Survey invitation emails were also sent to an additional list of approximately 39,000 email addresses from the Phoenix metropolitan area purchased for a previous survey effort 22 . This list yielded 782 responses. The survey invitation emails were sent using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and through the Qualtrics platform. Every 20 th respondent who was invited through the purchased email addresses received a $10 incentive as a gift card. Respondents also had the option to donate their survey incentive to a charity. Invitees received two reminders as part of efforts to maximize response rates.

An additional 5,250 responses to the Wave 1B survey were collected through a Qualtrics Online Panel. Qualtrics recruits these respondents from a variety of panels maintained by other firms and uses quota sampling to recruit respondents that are demographically representative of the nation. The Qualtrics quotas were set to collect information from 20 U.S. metropolitan areas, mostly consistent with the metropolitan areas sampled from the purchased email list, as well as the states of Ohio, Utah, North Carolina, upstate New York, and rural areas. In order to obtain samples that would represent the population in each of the selected geographies, quotas were imposed in the Qualtrics online panel subsample to guarantee representation based on income, age, race and ethnicity, and education. We requested all respondents to provide their email addresses in order to recontact them for subsequent survey waves. Since the Qualtrics respondents are professional survey takers, we designated most questions as mandatory, and we included attention check questions, which are shown to improve response quality 23 .

The distribution of responses by geography, as well as the targeted metropolitan areas, are shown in Fig.  1 . Figure  2 shows the distribution of responses by recruitment method, available in the “org” variable in the dataset. The geographical targets were chosen based on geographic and metropolitan area size diversity, as well as the state of the virus spread in May 2020.

Distribution of Record by Source (from the survey dataset version 1.0).

Figure  1 shows the distribution of survey respondents across the U.S. (50 states and the District of Columbia). Following our recruitment strategy, a greater number of responses come from larger and more urban states. Arizona is overrepresented due to the oversample of Arizona respondents in the email-based deployment. The respondents from the initial Wave 1A sample are also more likely to hail from Arizona as the Arizona State University survey team’s network is heavily Arizona-based. When the data are weighted, any geographic discrepancies at the census division level are controlled and overrepresentation of Arizona is controlled/corrected separately.

Additional survey waves

To monitor how people’s attitudes and behaviors evolve, survey respondents are contacted again with at least two shorter follow-up surveys, approximately four months apart in spring and fall 2021.

Data Records

The survey dataset 24 can be accessed from the ASU Dataverse at: https://doi.org/10.48349/ASU/QO7BTC . The dataset is available in CSV (comma-separated value) format. Since the data will be updated periodically, the data are versioned—in this article, results from the survey dataset version 1.0 are reported. The dataverse also contains the database codebook containing the metadata and explaining the variables. The codebook contains a changelog for each new version.

The respondents to Waves 1A and 1B received similar but not identical surveys. We have merged the responses to these two versions of the survey into the final dataset wherever possible. For some variables, the questions were identical, whereas for other variables, harmonization of similar responses was required. In the dataset, variables ending in ‘_harm’ are harmonized between the two datasets, variables ending in ‘_w1a’ are available only for Wave 1A respondents, variables ending in ‘_w1b’ are available only for respondents from our Qualtrics Online Panel, purchased email lists, and anyone who found the survey via the COVIDFuture web site or email lists after June 19, 2020 (start date of Wave 1B). Variables with no suffix were asked the same way between the two surveys, and no harmonization was necessary. We also provide a file containing only Wave 1B responses and variables, which simplifies analysis of the Wave 1B data.

Technical Validation

Data cleaning.

To monitor respondents’ attention to survey questions in the Qualtrics online panel, attention check questions were included. Respondents were allowed to miss one attention check and be given an opportunity to answer that section again. If they missed an attention check twice, or both attention checks once, their survey was terminated.

We additionally undertook several quality checks to help ensure that the collected data were valid. We removed any respondents who reported that they shop for groceries both in-store and online every day, or expect to after the pandemic, as these are likely to be invalid responses. We also removed respondents who reported strongly agreeing or strongly disagreeing with all COVID-related attitudes, as some of these were worded positively and some negatively. Several additional quality checks were undertaken in the Qualtrics Online Panel as part of Qualtrics’ data cleaning process, including a check for people finishing the survey too quickly.

Respondents that did not report a state of residence, reported living outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia, or did not provide answers to all of the control variables used in the data weighting process described in the next section were removed from the data. Due to this restriction, 558 records with missing control variable information, 59 records with missing home location, and one response from Puerto Rico were not included in the final dataset encompassing responses received through October 14, 2020. Further steps in data preparation will include imputation of missing data, which will allow for some of these omitted records to be recovered in the next version of the dataset. Among the respondents who were not included in the dataset due to missing control variable information, there are 34 respondents who declared their gender as Other; these respondents could not be included because the Census offers no control marginals to weight these records. Further data weighting procedures will attempt to incorporate non-binary gendered individuals on the dataset. Due to the data cleaning and filtering process applied to responses obtained through October 14, 2020, a total of 618 records were not included in the published dataset.

Data weighting

Because the raw data are not fully representative of the U.S. population, weights were calculated using the following control variables: age, education, gender, Hispanic status, household income, presence of children, and number of household vehicles. The weighting procedure accounts for the true population characteristics at the person level. Household-level variables (i.e., income, presence of children, and number of vehicles) were controlled at the person level as well. For example, the marginal distribution used for presence of children refers to the share of adults aged 18 years and older living in household with children, instead of the share of households that have children as it is usually represented. Those marginal distributions were computed using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample and the American Community Survey (ACS) 2018 1-year data 25 using the sample 18 and older in each of the weighting region boundaries. A noteworthy consequence of this approach is that adjusted household weights are necessary to evaluate household-level characteristics since individuals from larger households are more likely to be represented in the survey (given there are more individuals in these households), and thus have a higher probability of being selected. Weights for household-level analysis can be computed by dividing the person-level weight (provided in the data) by the number of adults in the household.

The national sample was divided into nine regions based on the reported home state (Table  2 ). Each region’s sample was then weighted to match the distributions observed in ACS 2018 1-year estimates 25 , meaning that the survey is demographically representative at the level of each region as well as the entire U.S. The unweighted and weighted survey results are shown in Table  3 ; the weighted results closely replicate population distributions, with inevitable minor deviations on variables that were not controlled in the weighting process.

Weights were calculated using iterative proportional fitting (IPF) procedures embedded within the synthetic population generator PopGen2.0 26 , 27 , 28 . Univariate marginal control distributions were derived from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample, American Community Survey (ACS) 2018 1-year data 25 .

Usage Notes

Since the survey will be followed by at least two follow-up survey waves, the database will be updated periodically after the data for each wave is collected, cleaned, and weighted. Each version of the data will be uploaded to the ASU Dataverse and assigned a new DOI number, and all previous versions will remain available to promote reproducibility.

The weights were developed to produce a sample that is representative of the U.S. population, as well as representative of nine divisions within the U.S.: eight census regions (with East and West South Central combined due to small samples in these regions), and a separate category for Arizona due to its large number of respondents. The weights are not guaranteed to produce a representative sample for other (smaller) geographies. When evaluating subsamples at a finer geography (e.g., state or metropolitan area), data users should compare marginal distributions of key demographic variables with the census, and re-weight the data if needed to be representative of the area being analyzed.

Some questions differ between Waves 1A and 1B. Therefore, we have weighted the dataset twice: once including all respondents (Waves 1A and 1B), and once excluding respondents to the Wave 1A sample. Data users should use the Wave 1B weights whenever using variables that are not present in the convenience sample. Since Wave 1A data deviates significantly in terms of population representativeness 4 , there are no weights for questions asked only of Wave 1A respondents. In the file with only Wave 1B responses, only Wave 1B weights are presented.

This unique dataset provides insights on attitudes and behaviors not just before and during pandemic, but also on what might be expected after the pandemic. Possible use cases include modeling of during-pandemic and longer-term changes in mode use, air travel, transit ridership, work from home, and traffic congestion (especially for peak period traffic planning). Published uses of this dataset are documented in Capasso da Silva et al . 29 , Chauhan et al . 30 , Mirtich et al . 31 , and Salon et al . 32 .

Code availability

No codes were developed for this research.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID program under grants no. 2030156 and 2029962 and by the Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks (TOMNET), a University Transportation Center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation through grant no. 69A3551747116, as well as by the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at Arizona State University. This COVID-19 Working Group effort was also supported by the NSF-funded Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) network and the CONVERGE facility at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder (NSF Award #1841338) and the NSF CAREER award under grant no. 155173. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.

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Department of Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Rishabh Singh Chauhan, Ali Shamshiripour, Ehsan Rahimi, Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian & Sybil Derrible

School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Matthew Wigginton Bhagat-Conway & Deborah Salon

School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Denise Capasso da Silva, Sara Khoeini & Ram Pendyala

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Contributions

R.P., A.M., S.D., D.S. and S.K. planned the project. D.S., M.C., D.C.S., R.C., E.R. and A.M. prepared the survey questions. M.C., D.C.S. and D.S. designed the survey flow logic. R.C., D.C.S., M.C., D.S. and S.D. deployed the survey. M.C. and D.C.S. performed data cleaning and survey data analysis. D.C.S. weighted the dataset. M.C. and D.S. worked on sending out the incentives to the selected respondents. R.C. prepared the first draft. All the authors made significant contributions to manuscript editing and approving the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rishabh Singh Chauhan .

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Chauhan, R.S., Bhagat-Conway, M.W., Capasso da Silva, D. et al. A database of travel-related behaviors and attitudes before, during, and after COVID-19 in the United States. Sci Data 8 , 245 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01020-8

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eZee Absolute

Online Hotel Management System

Why Understanding Travel Behavior Is Necessary For EVERY Hotel?

I’m a frequent traveler, and over time I’ve inculcated some travel habits, such as going on solo trips on hill stations, planning them a month in advance, booking a budget-friendly accommodation, and travelling light.

If you’ve a property at a beautiful destination and offer special tariffs for solo travelers, then marketing it to me is a good opportunity for you. 

You see, every guest, whether potential, frequent, or in-house, follows certain travel habits, and it’s necessary for hotels to identify them.

I know you would be having certain questions such as: What are travel habits? Is it really important to determine them? How to understand travel behavior?

Let me give answers to all your questions in this blog.

Table of Content

What are travel habits, why is it necessary to understand travel behavior, what are the most common travel habits, how to understand travel behavior.

• Check every guest’s booking history
• Analyse orders during previous stay
• Understand their reviews and feedback
• Use survey forms
• Keep yourself updated with trends
• Connect with travel agents for insights
• Don’t forget OTA Managers

Travel habits, also known as travel behaviour, can be simply defined as common traits that guests follow while traveling to any destination. It could be booking patterns, requested amenities or services, reasons and frequency of travelling, or any other factor that can help you in understanding your guests better.

Not only this, there are several other reasons why you should be investing time in understanding travel behavior, let’s take a look at them.

One of the prime reasons for understanding travel behavior is to know what travelers are seeking around the world. You can even learn some of them from your frequent guests.

Apart from that, it can help you serve your guests more efficiently, as you would be aware of their requirements and expectations from a hotel. This will give you an edge over your competitors and facilitate major guest retention.

Another important reason for identifying travel behavior is effective target marketing. What’s that?

Well, you may be aware of marketing as per guest segment , this is somewhat similar to that. However, this is more of an individual approach, where you target a specific person at a time. If done right, it can benefit you in the long run.

The traveler community has evolved over time; so have their travel habits. For instance, before the internet era, people used to plan their journeys 3 months prior.

Moreover, finding a hotel for staying in was either through travel agents, tourism magazines, or referrals from friends and family. I still remember, whenever I traveled with my parents, we used to roam around for hours searching for a perfect place to stay.

As I said, things change with time. Nowadays, people are inclined towards spontaneous travel plans. This has led hotels to promote last-minute bookings amongst such guests.

Before you start understanding travel behavior, let me give you a list of some of the common ones to make your work easier.

• Budget and solo traveling
• Exploring off-beat destinations
• Light traveling
• Visiting local attractions
• Learning and trying regional cuisines
• Opting for free breakfast
• Look for hotels with Wi-Fi
• Search for sustainable staying options

Whilst these are some general traits that can help you, there are some guests’ travel habits that can be a reason for your loss:

• Improper reviews to cash out some extra benefit from hotels
• Stealing from hotel
• Creating unnecessary ruckus

Some of these would’ve been observed by you as well. You can find and list them using the strategies I have mentioned ahead. 

Without further ado, let’s get straight to addressing the core part of the blog – understanding travel behavior of guests.

1. Check every guest’s booking history

To begin with, analyse your booking history. It’ll help you in identifying which guests have: 

• Often opted for last-minute bookings;
• Stayed mostly on weekends or a fortnight only;
• Travelled during season;
• Booked room with the lowest tariff;
• Selected room with CP plan;
• Made booking from the website and OTAs;
• Whether travelled solo or with a group.

Based on such details you can create certain customised packages for your guests and promote them accordingly. Moreover, a personalised package adhering to a particular guest’s preferences is definitely a successful strategy to win them.

2. Analyse orders during previous stay

Another important aspect that needs to be considered in analysing is, food habits. People are now becoming more health conscious and fitness enthusiasts. 

In fact, these days, many GenZ and millennials’ travel habits include opting for healthy food whenever they stay in a hotel. In addition to this, most of them are adopting the “Go Vegan” trend.

So, when you are analysing your guests’ profiles, check for their previous orders. Also, don’t forget to see if they have made any particular requests or recommendations which can be implemented at your property.

3. Understand their reviews and feedback

Reviews and feedback are a vital component of a hotel’s online reputation. But did you know, they can be used for understanding travel behavior?

Yes, indeed, they can be. Let’s take this review for an instance.

If you see, the guest (Mr Juan) is quite satisfied with the cleanliness of the hotel. However, if you read further, he opted for CP plan, but didn’t find the breakfast upto his expectations.

Now, when you market your property to him, you can emphasise on the breakfast part. Moreover, you can offer a complimentary one for this previous experience.

Similarly, you need to analyse your hotel’s reviews from multiple OTAs to understand travel behavior of your guests. Investing in a reputation management software would ease out this task for you and save your efforts as well.

Also, go for compset analysis. All you need to do is see what your guests have to say about your competitors.

Their most criticised factors could prove to be the best weapon in your arsenal while target marketing.

4. Use survey forms

I’m sure you’d be urging your guests to share their review on the online booking platforms. But it’s uncertain that they would do it or not.

So, why not collect their feedback at the property itself. No, not on those platforms, but internally, for further analysis.

I used to do this during my internship. Every time a guest would come to the reception for checking out, we had a protocol to give guests a survey form. It would have simple MCQs regarding experience they had at the property and what can be done to make it better.

Next day our manager would analyse them, and brief us during meetings on what steps can be taken to enhance that guest’s experience during the next visit.

And guess what, it worked. We identified a travel habit of one of our frequent guests. He always booked a room for single pax and opted for one with a balcony to smoke up. 

Eventually, next time he visited us, we offered him a perfect room without even him asking for it. Results? Happy guest, improved brand loyalty, and better guest satisfaction.

So, consider this example and use this step for understanding the travel behavior of your guests.

5. Keep yourself updated with trends

The points I’ve mentioned above are mainly useful for understanding the traits of your hotel’s guests. Let me tell you how you can understand the travel behavior of tourists across the world.

I always say, “Either be the trend, or follow it”. In this digital era, being in trend is the next big thing.

The best way to find out about them is by bringing social media to your aid. All you need to do is just follow hashtags and accounts that are relatable to your business, such as:

• #hoteltrend
• #trendinghotels
• #hotelguests
• #traveltrend
• #travelcommunity
• #hospitalitytrends

Once you start following them, you’ll get the posts pertaining to them in your feed. You can see why guests are recommending other hotels, what kind of services those properties offer, and try to implement them at your property. 

For example, many guests have a habit of posting pictures of the view from their hotel’s room on social media. If you have such USP at your property, it’s time to market it to such travelers.

Another way is staying in touch with bloggers. You can bookmark some of the famous hospitality and tourism blogs websites to stay updated with travel trends and deploy the feasible ones at your hotel.

6. Connect with travel agents for insights

Travel agents have been a crucial part of the hospitality industry for a long time. From getting hotels booked over multiple calls to handling reservations with mere clicks, they’ve seen an evolution in guests’ travel habits over the period.

You should connect with them and learn about what kind of bookings and hotels, travelers are looking for. Check if they have guests looking for a particular amenity or facility that you can cater to.

7. Don’t forget OTA Managers

Last but not least, OTAs. There’s no doubt that they generate a huge chunk of business for hotels, and over the last few years, their popularity amongst travelers has grown exponentially.

If you want to understand guests’ travel behavior across the world, OTA managers are one of the sources to learn about them. They are usually  in touch with major hotels and often analyse them to guide hoteliers on how they can increase bookings. 

It could be either by promoting most sought room meal plans, any specific room category, last-minute offers, or some other factor as per the market demand. Staying in touch with them will help you in understanding the ongoing travel traits which can be used for further benefits.

Analysing guest habits is one of the important steps which hoteliers generally tend to miss. This leaves them unaware of the expectations and demands of the guests from across the world.

If you are not doing it, it’s time to understand the travel behavior of your guests. Use the steps I’ve mentioned in this blog and get started.

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How can we make travel more ethical in the post-Covid world?

Aug 9, 2021 • 6 min read

Better understanding why and how we travel to new places is the first step towards becoming a more ethical traveler © Jupiterimages / Getty Images

As travel starts to slowly open up again in some parts of the world, how can we make our trips more ethical? This is the question explored in the new book Tread Brightly: Notes on Ethical Travel , with essays from more than a dozen writers. In this essay excerpt, writer and editor Juhie Bhatia looks at how actions from making travel a more active exchange to examining our power and privilege can move us in a more ethical direction.

Whether it’s visiting acclaimed Parisian museums, hiking through the Grand Canyon , or exploring ancient temples in Cambodia , there’s a reason so many tourists flock to the same places around the world: to experience these extraordinary natural and human-made masterpieces. Travel can be awe-inspiring, fun, and a temporary escape. It opens up the world, connecting us and allowing us to better understand other perspectives. Travel leaves an impact on us, long after we’ve returned home.

Like for countless others, travel has had a significant influence on my life. As the daughter of Indian immigrants who settled in Canada, I learned early on that there were many ways to do things in this world. While this sometimes created a feeling of never quite fitting into either world, it also sparked a lifetime of wanderlust.

My itchy feet have taken me on many globetrotters’ clichés. Studying abroad in Glasgow , Scotland, followed by backpacking across Europe for a summer. Traveling through Asia after university and volunteering in India . Moving to Paris to learn French, though in truth, my fluency barely improved. Becoming a journalist, in part so I wouldn’t be bound to any one place. And, of course, many vacations.

Travel is a privilege

But over the years, these experiences began to raise questions for me about the purpose of travel and tourism, its impact on a destination, and the role privilege can play in who gets to travel and how we are treated once abroad. Often, the personal benefits we gain when traveling come at the expense of the places and people we visit. These include degradation of the environment, threats to local culture and heritage, overcrowding, and residents being priced out of their own cities.

How might we continue to reap travel’s many benefits while minimizing its damaging impacts? Are there ways to travel besides getting elbowed at the Louvre ? How can we turn travel from consumption into an active, positive exchange? Is it possible to travel better, more ethically?

“Ethical travel really is simply mindful travel,” says Jeff Greenwald, executive director of Ethical Traveler, a California-based nonprofit organization. “It’s travel with an awareness of the places you’re visiting, your impact on those places, where your money is going, and how you can be a good representative of your own country when you travel, rather than just an example of everything that’s wrong with your own country.”

But for Greenwald, a truly ethical traveler should do more than just be mindful. “It’s being proactive in taking steps to reduce your impact, to support local businesses and individuals, and to be aware and engaged with people in these countries.”

Until the outbreak of COVID-19, international tourism had been growing rapidly. In 2019, 1.5 billion people traveled abroad for leisure, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, a four percent increase from the previous year. The UNWTO attributed this growth to a strong global economy, a growing middle class in emerging economies, technological advances, affordable travel costs, and greater visa facilitation.

Consequences of travel habits

While the COVID-19 outbreak has majorly slowed down the tourism industry, the good news is that even before the pandemic, increasingly more people were becoming conscious of the consequences of their travel habits and wanting to change. Recent surveys and market studies indicate that a growing portion of travelers are interested in authentic and localized travel experiences that are good for residents and destinations.

For example, a 2019 study conducted on behalf of Exodus Travels, an adventure holiday company specializing in cultural, walking, and cycling holidays, found that about 80 percent of American travelers say they hope to become more ethically conscious in their future adventures.

The research, which surveyed 2000 internationally-traveling Americans, also revealed that 39 percent feel “travel guilt” over their past experiences abroad, especially if it involved practices like swimming with dolphins or posing for photos with captive wildlife. Respondents say that a combination of personal research, greater concern for the environment, and documentaries like Blackfish  have made them more conscientious.

Ethical travel or responsible travel?

There is no set definition of ethical travel, sometimes known as responsible travel. It means different things to different people. Ethical travel can pertain to all types of travel, from all-inclusive resorts to tiny ecotourist lodges. It can cover a wide range of actions, from small gestures – like making more meaningful connections with locals – to fundamentally changing how one travels. For some, ethical travel means showing up to a place with more openness and humility or buying fair trade products. For others, it means reducing one’s environmental footprint while traveling. And for some, it means avoiding a particular destination altogether.

For Jonathan Day, an associate professor of sustainable tourism at Purdue University, ethical travel means taking individual responsibility. 

“When I define what is ethical, I’m thinking about it both as am I being environmentally ethical and am I being socially ethical?” he says. “At the end of the day, what is ethics? Ethics is about doing the right thing.”

Wanting to “do the right thing” and make a positive impact while traveling can sometimes be tricky. Whether you’re studying abroad, backpacking through a foreign country, or going camping, it can be difficult to figure out if you’re making ethical choices, or at least not actively causing harm with your travels. But sometimes even the best of intentions can go awry.

Travel writer Faith Adiele is trying to get people to think more ethically about how they travel, and the narratives used to depict our experiences abroad. Adiele is the founder of the first and only workshop in the U.S. for travel writers of color. Her goal? To decolonize travel and have us reflect on its imperialist origins.

“People have this rhetoric of what travel does in terms of opening our eyes,” says Adiele. One shortcoming of this approach, she says, is that it can turn locals into backdrops for our grand transformation narratives. For that to work, these people must remain primitive, “authentic,” and unchanging.

Adiele believes it’s important to travel. However, she wants people to make an effort to move past the colonial nature of travel – by thinking carefully about how to travel, how we treat the “natives” we encounter, and how we describe our travels once we return home, including on social media and to our friends and family.

Once you arrive at a destination is when the fun starts. This is no different with ethically-minded trips, with an added layer of consciousness about how you spend your time and money and interact with the people you meet.

Getting the most out of a trip can mean moving away from travel’s typical focus on consumption to an active exchange. There are many ways to do this, but a lot of it boils down to two things: being mindful of your actions and being respectful of the communities you visit. For example, when meeting new people, ask about their lives, listen, and if possible, learn a few phrases of the local language. Be aware and respectful of local customs, and approach daily experiences with a genuine desire to learn.

Extracted from the book  “Tread Brightly: Notes on Ethical Travel,”   available for  order here .

You might also like: How to choose a responsible travel operator Would you travel to pick up litter? 7 steps to becoming a mindful traveler

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Exploring Gen Z and Millennial Travel Habits – New Skift Research

Varsha Arora, Skift

January 12th, 2024 at 7:57 AM EST

Millennials and Gen Z are steering travel trends with a focus on technology, sustainability, and a quest for distinctive and meaningful experiences.

What are the preferences and behaviors of Millennials and Gen Z travelers across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany?

Skift Research’s latest report, “ Exploring Gen Z and Millennial Travel ,” offers analysis of these groups’ journey logistics, destination experiences, loyalty considerations, and more.

We found key differences between young travelers from the U.S. and Europe. Those from the UK and Germany leaned towards more adventurous travel behavior and were open to enjoying more vacation days. Half of U.S. Millennials exhibited a penchant for domestic travel, with a strong preference for exploring the diverse landscapes within the country. Higher international travel rates were seen in the UK and Germany.

Economic factors, including airfare costs and international tariffs, may play a role in influencing Gen Z’s inclination towards domestic travel.

The report underscores the influence of digital platforms on travel decisions, with 57% of individuals relying on social media channels for travel planning. Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook are primary platforms for travel inspiration, indicating a shift towards online and visual mediums. Gen Z displays a clear preference for TikTok and Snapchat.

There is a clear inclination towards direct booking. Millennials and Gen Z prefer direct online channels for flight bookings, with Gen Z showing a higher reliance on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs).

There is also a tendency toward last-minute bookings and short-term and flexible travel planning.

Hotels remain the dominant choice for accommodation, with boutique hotels and vacation rentals gaining popularity. Vacation rentals are more favored by Gen Z compared to Millennials.

Destination experiences highlight varying transportation preferences and in-destination activities. Millennials and Gen Z express a significant interest in wellness activities. The survey indicates a shared interest in prioritizing and seeking out tourism operators adhering to social and environmental standards, underlining a preference for sustainable travel practices among these generations.

Loyalty considerations reveal a higher inclination of Millennials towards airline loyalty programs compared to Gen Z. Both generations use loyalty points to reduce travel expenses. Hotel loyalty program participation shows a narrower divide between the two generations, with a consistent pattern of active engagement.

Technology and work dynamics showcase a higher frequency of digital tools usage among Millennials, reflecting variations in reliance on these tools for travel planning and during travels. The data highlights a significant trend of blended travel, with a higher percentage of Millennials extending their recent business trips for leisure compared to Gen Z.

Societal and economic factors indicate a positive outlook for the travel industry, with respondents anticipating an increase in total travel spending over the next 12 months. Millennials exhibit slightly higher optimism towards increased travel spending. Concerns about climate change, tourism’s impact on local communities, and the balance between travel and work responsibilities underscore the growing significance of social and environmental considerations in travel decisions.

What You’ll Learn From This Report

• Travel Preferences and Motivations
• Journey Logistics
• Experiencing the Destination
• Loyalty and Financial Considerations
• Technology and Work Dynamics
• Societal and Economic Factors

This is the latest in a series of reports and data products that Skift Research puts out to help you analyze the biggest trends in the travel industry. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. More than 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

By subscribing to Skift Research, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports conducted on topics ranging from technology to marketing strategy to deep dives on key travel brands. You will also be able to access our proprietary Skift Travel Health Index, Skift Travel Company Tracker, Hotel Tech Benchmark, and data from our regular traveler surveys.

Exploring Gen Z and Millennial Travel Habits

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: adventure travel , artificial intelligence , blended travel , loyalty , online travel agencies , skift research

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With the decline in air travel from the pandemic, the classic road trip has become more popular in America.

Here are 8 ways travel will change after the pandemic

What will travel look like in the future? We asked the experts.

With coronavirus cases continuing to spike in America and abroad, travelers with a United States passport remain grounded. To date, just nine countries are open to Americans without restrictions. If Belarus, Serbia , Zambia or any of the other six countries on that list aren’t in the cards, then travelers itching to get on an international flight will have to wait.

How long is still unknown. Elizabeth Becker, author of Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism , notes that the pandemic “ decimated ” the $8 trillion global travel industry overnight. “Those essential pillars of 21st-century global travel—open borders, open destinations, and visa-free travel—won’t return in the short term or even medium term,” she says.

What does that mean for the future of travel? Despite the turbulence, experts are seeing blue skies. Bruce Poon Tip, author of Unlearn: The Year the Earth Stood Still and the founder of travel company G Adventures , says not only will we travel again, we’ll do it better. “I still believe travel can be the biggest distributor of wealth the world has ever seen,” he says. “This pause gives us the gift of time to consider how we can travel more consciously.”

From a renewed commitment to sustainable tourism to creative ways to globetrot from home, here’s how travel authors, bloggers, and podcasters are navigating.

( Related: These 25 destinations inspire future journeys and remind us why we love to travel .)

Sustainability will be a driving force

Tourists crowd St. ​Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, in 2013. In the wake of the pandemic, experts predict there will be more interest in visiting less-crowded places.

One silver lining of the pandemic? Consumers are doubling down on sustainability . Becker predicts travelers will take on the role of “concerned citizens” demanding responsible travel policies. The industry will respond with active measures to prioritize a healthy world over profit margins. “Don’t be surprised if countries mandate ‘fly-free days’ and other measures to control climate change,” she says.

• Nat Geo Expeditions

Take action: Reduce your carbon footprint by purchasing offsets with companies such as Cool Effect and by staying at certified green hotels. Check sites like Book Different , which rates accommodations for eco-friendliness.

( Related: Here’s how Greece is rethinking its once bustling tourism industry .)

Our journeys will become more inclusive

The Black Lives Matter movement has brought the issue of representation to light in all industries, including travel. That’s overdue, says Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon . The award-winning journalist and TV host says she hopes the industry is moving toward meaningful change but worries that any change may be short-lived. “When the pandemic is past and the hashtags are no longer trending, will industry gatekeepers still be eager to attract, cater to, and celebrate travelers of color?” she writes in an email. “I’m cautiously optimistic but not completely convinced.”

Black Travel Alliance ’s Martinique Lewis feels the industry is moving in the right direction and remains hopeful. She notes that companies are addressing the needs of diverse customers and says it’s about time. “For the first time they are considering what a trans female goes through not only when choosing what bathroom to go in at a restaurant, but when she checks into a hotel and her license shows a different person,” says Lewis. “Now plus-size travelers wanting to surf and scuba but can’t because the lack of wetsuits in their size are being acknowledged. Now blind travelers who still want to experience tours and extreme sports while on holiday are thought of.”

Take action: Visit one of the nearly 200 living history museums in the U.S., where historic interpreters portray figures from the past. They shed light on painful issues (such as racism in America) and hidden narratives (such as those of people of color, whose stories have been suppressed).

Small communities will play a bigger role

Travelers can make a difference in small towns that were already struggling economically before the pandemic. Caz Makepeace of Y Travel Blog says she and her family have always traveled slowly to lesser-known areas, “rather than racing through destinations.” Now she’s supporting these places by patronizing local businesses and donating to nonprofits.

Kate Newman of Travel for Difference suggests travelers focus on “ global south ” or developing countries that depend on tourism. “We need to diversify our locations to avoid mass tourism and focus on the places that really need it,” she says. “Seeing so many communities suffer during COVID-19 has brought [this issue] to light.”

Take action: Turn to sustainable tourism educational and advocacy nonprofit Impact Travel Alliance to learn how to empower locals and protect the environment.

We’ll seek quality over quantity

High-mileage travelers are putting more thought into their bucket lists. “COVID-19 has allowed me to rethink how and why I travel,” says Erick Prince of The Minority Nomad . “It’s given me the freedom to explore travel projects for passion instead of the paycheck.” Rather than focusing on paid gigs, the blogger, who lives in Thailand, says he’ll be embarking on a self-funded project to highlight off-the-beaten-track provinces in his adopted country.

Eulanda Osagiede, of Hey Dip Your Toes In , is putting the breaks on international trips, citing travel as a privilege many take for granted. “Privilege comes in many forms, and the act of recognizing our travel-related ones have called us to think about traveling more intentionally and less often—if ever the world begins to look similar to its pre-pandemic days.”

Take action: Check the Transformational Travel Council for resources and recommendations on operators who can help organize meaningful journeys.

The road trip will kick into high gear

For many, road trips may be the only feasible option for travel right now, and frequent fliers like Gabby Beckford of Packs Light are revving up. Driving across state lines can be just as exciting as flying across international borders; it’s about the mindset. “Road-tripping has shown me that the core of travel—curiosity, exposure to newness, and wonder—[is] a perspective, not a destination,” she says.

Take action : Plan a coronavirus-conscious trip to Colorado, home to superlative stargazing sites —and what may become the world’s largest Dark Sky reserve.

Some high-mileage travelers say they plan to focus on meaningful experiences at out-of-the-way areas, like Chimney Tops in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park .

( Related: Check out these eight epic drives across America .)

Travel advisors will become essential

Conde Nast Traveller sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman predicts a shift to booking travel through agents and established operators, noting their invaluable knowledge and industry connections. “I think what 2020 has shown and taught us is the expertise and financial protection of booking through a travel agent often outweighs the amount you pay in commission,” she says. Additionally, she hopes that consumers will look to agents who specialize in the environment. “Those who care about where they send their customers can intuitively cut through greenwash and really ensure every link in the supply chain is an honorable one,” she says.

Related: Amazing architecture you can see from your car window

Take action: Find a travel advisor : The American Society of Travel Advisors maintains a database that allows travelers to search by destination, type of journey (such as eco-tourism or genealogy), and cohort (such as LGBTQ+ travelers). Virtuoso , a network of advisors specializing in luxury travel, can help with good deals, convenient itineraries, and tailored experiences.

We’ll appreciate staying closer to home

Some are discovering the benefits of travel even at home. Blogger Jessie Festa of Epicure & Culture and Jessie on a Journey normally travels internationally once a month. These days, online cultural cooking classes, games, and virtual experiences are helping her “to keep the spirit of travel alive by considering the feelings that travel elicits,” she says. Exchanging postcards with her extended travel community is another “beautiful way to ‘experience’ travel again, safely,” she adds.

“When we compare everything to being locked up indefinitely in our respective towers, a walk to the park can feel like travel,” says blogger Chris Mitchell of Traveling Mitch . “Now people are willing to see the magic in a meal on a patio at a restaurant down the street.”

Take action: Get outside, says the Norwegian concept “ friluftsliv ,” an idea of outdoor living that promises to make the pandemic’s colder months more bearable.

( Related: Here’s why walking is the ideal pandemic activity .)

Planning trips will become joyful again

Although some people are making the best of being grounded, this difficult period is reminding them that travel is important for boosting mental health and personal growth. There’s research to back it up. A 2013 survey of 483 U.S. adults found that travel improves empathy, energy, attention, and focus. Planning a trip is just as effective—a 2014 Cornell study showed that looking forward to travel substantially increases happiness, more than anticipating buying material goods.

Joanna Penn can attest to the healing benefits of both. The U.K.-based author and podcaster behind The Creative Penn and Books and Travel normally travels to research her books. “For me my writing life is all about what I learned when I travel,” she said in a recent podcast, “the ideas that come from being someplace new.” Her future trips will include walking the Camino de Santiago in 2022. Studying maps and determining a route makes her feel like she’s working toward a real goal. “I can expand my comfort zone without too much stress, especially if I accept that things might get canceled,” she said.

Take action: Plan a trip now, with inspiration from this essay on why travel should be considered an essential human activity.

Related Topics

• CORONAVIRUS
• SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
• MENTAL HEALTH
• VOLUNTOURISM

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