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Find Out How Revenge Travel May Affect Your Plans in 2022
Learn about revenge travel and how it could impact your upcoming vacation plans. Plus, find out what the euro-U.S. dollar parity means for travelers.
By: Catie Kovelman, Updated 07/13/2022
If you’re traveling soon, you may be in for a bumpy ride thanks to a phenomenon called revenge travel. During the pandemic, many people had to delay or cancel trips they had been looking forward to taking. So now that the world has found a new normal, Americans are eager to “take revenge” on COVID-19 by finally taking those vacations they had to cancel during the pandemic and make up for the lost time.
We saw a surge in revenge travel as restrictions were lifted in 2021, but as we enter the summer vacation season, experts are predicting that revenge travel in 2022 will far outpace last year. According to data collected by Mastercard, an estimated 1.5 billion more passengers from around the world will be flying this year than they did in 2021. That number includes the approximately 365 million more people in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico who plan to travel in 2021 who didn’t last year.
Naturally, the increase in demand is also leading to skyrocketing prices at the airlines. According to Hopper, there has been a 41% year-over-year increase in the prices of domestic flights and a 22% rise for international flights. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the month-to-month increase for airfares from March to April was a record 18.6%. Since April, airfare fees have only continued to rise.
Despite concerns about inflation, eager travelers don’t seem too deterred. In fact, people seem downright eager to spend money to explore and have a good time. A survey conducted by Credit Karma found that people are excited to travel soon and are expecting to spend at least $1,000 more on their summer vacation than they normally would. This coincides with additional findings from Mastercard, which showed that global tourist spending on entertainment and food has increased 34% since the pandemic began in 2019.
But if you’re traveling to Europe, you might find that your dollar stretches a lot farther. For the first time since 2002, the U.S. dollar is nearly equal in value to the euro. This gives Americans more buying power. According to CNBC, the euro-U.S. dollar parity equates to a 15% discount for Americans shopping in the 19 European Union countries that use the euro.
Speaking of which, where is everyone going? Destination Analysts, a market-research firm for the tourism industry, polled 4,000 Americans to find out. While some participants were traveling for business or family obligations, the majority reported that they wanted to go to new destinations they had never visited before. There is also a desire to “make up” trips that got canceled or changed because of the pandemic and a preference to visit destinations that don’t have strict COVID-19 regulations in place. Rather than planning trips that are short and close, people seem to be opting for medium or longer trips domestically. Internationally, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and other Caribbean-region countries have seen a big spike in American tourism. Overall, there is a general atmosphere of wanderlust and an eagerness for new experiences driving prospective travelers.
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