Recent data from Destination Analysts took a look at the impact of staffing shortages on summer travel.
Visit NC reported in their e-newsletter on Wednesday that of those Americans who took an overnight trip from mid-May to mid-August, 38 percent of them reported experiencing at least one issue on their trip that they attributed to staffing shortages.
These travelers, most frequently Gen X travelers, rated their experience as more than moderately frustrating. Travelers in the south region of the U.S. were also more frustrated than travelers from other regions.
Those travelers were almost evenly divided when asked if those frustrations were affecting their plans for travel this fall.
The study also reported that when planning travel, Americans use Facebook (27 percent), YouTube (26 percent), Instagram (21 percent), online travel agencies (25 percent), online content such as articles and blogs (22 percent), printed travel and lifestyle magazines (17 percent) and television programming (14 percent).
Travelers also report using official resources such as destination websites, online visitor guides and digital visitor guides to plan their travel.
The importance of travel rewards programs is important or extremely important to more than half of travelers, an increase of 11 percentage points since the beginning of the year. Yet even with the importance of rewards programs, American travelers plan to spend the same (37 percent) or more (48 percent) on travel in the next 12 months as they did in the previous 12 months.
