June 2, 2010
By Peter C. Yesawich
One of the consequences of the Great Recession was the emergence of a new form of leisure travel called a “staycation.” Last year, research we conducted on this trend suggested it was more myth than reality (fewer than 10 percent of leisure travelers acknowledged they had taken one), yet the results of our new Ypartnership/Harrison Group 2010 Portrait of American Travelers reveal that consumers may now, in fact, be taking more such vacations.
Specifically, fully one in four U.S. leisure travelers with an annual household income of more than $50,000 took at least one overnight leisure trip/vacation within a 50-mile drive radius of their home during the previous 12 months as an alternative to vacationing in a farther destination. This type of trip ranked higher among younger travelers than older travelers, yet equally evident across all households regardless of their annual household income.
On an equally surprising note, the staycation is most pronounced among adults living together (versus those who are married) and adults with children in residence at home:
• Thirty-seven percent of adults living together took at least one staycation last year, versus 25 percent of those who are married;
• Thirty-two percent of adults who have children took at least one staycation last year, versus only 21 percent of those with no children at home.
These data suggest the phenomenon is more than a term that captured the imagination of journalists eager to report on yet another manifestation of the impact of the poor economy on the travel industry. On the contrary, staycations appear to be real and represent a discernible, short-term shift in consumers’ leisure travel behavior, if only for 2009. It is important to understand, however, that the typical leisure traveler takes an average of four trips annually, so one should not come to the conclusion that staycations have necessarily replaced all well-established patterns of leisure travel.
But the implication for lodging marketers is clear: local and regional origin markets retain considerable potential for generating incremental room nights in the year ahead, and this potential is likely to remain robust through the duration of 2010 and well into 2011.
