High inflation looms over summer travel plans
Hello from SurveyMonkey! In this week’s newsletter, Sam is back with an exclusive deep dive on Americans’ summer travel plans. But first, as always, here’s a quick recap of our data in the news and on our blog:
Transgender workers look for support in the workplace: a new SurveyMonkey poll shows that transgender workers are more than twice as likely as cisgender workers to say their employers are not doing enough to support transgender employees (38% vs. 16%). Transgender adults are far more likely than cisgender adults to avoid using their authentic gender and pronouns in the workplace and are more likely to report experiencing microaggressions. To help employers better understand the needs of their transgender and non-binary employees, we’ve created a survey template. Check out the template and read some of the coverage here.
Workers remain confident amid economic uncertainty: a recent WSJ|SurveyMonkey poll shows that 41% of remote workers are more confident that they could find a new remote job now compared with six months ago. Young workers bolster overall confidence: 48% of remote workers aged 18-34 are more confident that they could find another remote job now compared with 40% of remote workers age 35-64 and 27% of remote workers age 65+. Read the full story.
Online purchases of beauty and personal care products increase throughout the pandemic: a new Momentive poll shows how Covid-19 has shifted the beauty and personal care industry as online shopping grows. Currently, 14% of U.S. adults say they do most of their shopping in these categories online, twice as much as before the pandemic (7%). In-store shopping, however, remains the dominant mode, despite declining from 60% to 51% over the last couple of years. Read the blog post here.
Rising travel costs test Americans’ resolve to travel this summer
High inflation is dampening the usual summer travel enthusiasm this summer. The vast majority (74%) of travelers say travel is more expensive than usual, and only one in four (25%) say it is about as expensive, or less expensive than usual. More than half (55%) say they are likely to cancel or modify plans if costs continue to rise, with lower-income Americans especially feeling the pinch.
67% of those making less than $50,000 a year say they are 'very' or 'somewhat' likely to have their travel plans affected by rising costs, compared to 57% of those making between $50,000 and less than $100,000, and only 43% of those making $100,00 or more.
Uncertainty looms greater for Americans of color, with more than two in three (68%) Black travelers saying rising costs are likely to affect their travel plans, compared with 63% of Hispanics, 54% of Asians, and 50% of white Americans.
More than half of Americans plan on traveling this summer
Summer travel is in full swing, with more than half of Americans (54%) planning on traveling this upcoming season. Younger adults are more likely to be traveling this summer: 61% of Gen Zers plan on doing so, compared with 54% of Millennials and 55% of Gen Xers. Those with higher incomes are also driving the majority of demand: a whopping 70% of Americans making six figures annually plan on traveling, compared with 56% of those making between $50,000 and less than $100,000, and 42% of those making less than $50,0000.
Demand for travel is higher than a year ago: among those who have travel plans, one in three (31%) say they are traveling more this summer than last year. Most travelers (73%) are heading out of state, while 37% are staying in-state and 21% are traveling internationally.
Gen Zers and Millennials are expecting to travel out of state or internationally at similar rates as older generations, but are also opting for more in-state trips.
Travelers remain cautious about COVID-19
Concerns over COVID-19 linger, but Americans are largely proceeding as usual. While nearly half (47%) show some degree of concern about a COVID outbreak, only 16% say they are ‘very worried’. Americans of color show greater concern: 25% of Hispanics and Asians, and 35% of Blacks are ‘very concerned’ about an outbreak, compared with only 10% of white Americans. A similar trend emerges when it comes to wearing masks on airplanes, even as most major airlines have dropped mask mandates.
48% of white Americans are likely to continue to wear a mask on an airplane, compared with 67% of Hispanics, 77% of Asians, and an overwhelming 85% of Blacks.
Concerns over the economy continue to rise
Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the country’s economic health, with more than half (57%) of U.S. adults saying that the current state of the economy is ‘poor’ - up 5 percentage points from the previous month. Fewer also think the economy is doing ‘fair’ (29%, down from 31% in May) or ‘good’ (11%, down from 14% in May). A stark contrast in sentiment, however, emerges across party lines: Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to view the economy as poor (79% vs. 35%), although negative sentiment has increased from the previous month among both parties (76% and 30%).
That’s all for this week! Thanks as always for reading.