As the weather cools down, holiday travel is heating up, and the majority of travelers are hitting the road.
A recent survey conducted by Enterprise Mobility found that 56% of Americans surveyed are planning at least one overnight trip, 50+ miles away from home between November 2023 and January 2024, with 61% of those trips to take place in an owned or rented vehicle this holiday season.
- 48% of trips are planned to take place in a personal vehicle, just over one in 10 (11%) are anticipated to be a rental vehicle and 2% plan to utilize a rideshare service.
- Just over a quarter (28%) plan to use loyalty points toward booking travel, and a third of those plan to use their points toward a rental vehicle.
- When taking a holiday road trip, the majority of Americans (90%) enjoy listening to at least some holiday music.
“The great American road trip is alive and well, and we are seeing strong demand at both our neighborhood and airport locations and an increase in holiday travel bookings compared to last year,” Enterprise Mobility Senior Vice President of North American Operations Will Withington said.
Americans who are traveling are planning an average of two trips this season, with Christmas being the most popular holiday for travel (66%), followed by Thanksgiving (49%).
Of all holiday trips planned in the U.S., more than half are to visit friends and family (58%) but almost one quarter (23%) are purely for leisure, a vacation getaway without visiting friends or family. And December is the busiest month for travel over the holiday season, with 46% of all travel days happening in this month (departures and returns). In addition:
- Nearly half (46%) of trips are less than 200 miles from home and slightly more than half (54%) are 200 or more miles away.
- The top three domestic destinations this year are warmer states, including California, Florida and Texas, although New York ranks fourth place.
- While only 7% of planned trips are international, the most popular destination among Americans is Mexico, followed by Canada, Australia, the Dominican Republic and Greece.
Generationally, Millennials (age 27-42) are the most likely to have travel plans this holiday season (62%) while Generation Z (age 18-26) is the least likely (43%), and 53% of both Generation X (43-58) and Baby Boomers (59+) are planning to travel this holiday season. Of all the trips planned this season, Gen Z is least likely to have a trip planned to visit friends and family (47%) but most likely to have a vacation getaway planned, not visiting friends or family (27%).
* This survey was commissioned by Enterprise Mobility and conducted in October 2023. Sample includes responses from 1,802 U.S. residents ages 18-70 sourced from the Enterprise Exchange Research Community and Qualtrics panel, of whom 1,000 respondents plan to travel for at least one night or longer to a destination more than 50 miles away from home between November 2023 and January 2024.
