Those holiday travel plans will be expensive (here’s how to prepare)

While the 2023 holiday season will be an expensive one, that is not keeping many from taking trips.

Numbers from Deloitte’s annual Holiday Travel Survey show that 48% of Americans plans to travel between Thanksgiving and the start of 2024. A year ago, that number was only at 31%.

Related: The best time to book your Thanksgiving and Christmas flight is now

According to the 5,821 Americans polled by Deloitte over two weeks in September, 19% are traveling to visit family and friends while 29% are taking a leisure trip over the holidays.

Financial worries are keeping many from traveling, report finds

The remaining 52% are not going anywhere this year and, out of those, 32% are not doing it due to the cost. The average travel budget jumped to $2,725 this year and, due to the rising cost of everything from plane tickets to hotels, many travelers are taking fewer trips to stay within what they can afford to spend.

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“Spending time with family and friends is even more important during the holidays and Americans are embracing this tradition as they pack away many of the concerns that impacted plans last year,” Deloitte’s Vice Chair Of Transportation, Hospitality & Services Mike Daher said in a statement. “Travel providers who deliver memorable experiences during the holidays will have the opportunity to further engage travelers looking to plan additional trips during the year.”

For those who do intend to travel, the average number of trips taken during the holiday period is 1.88. This dropped from 2.01 from 2022 while the duration of the trips has also dipped — 75% said their longest trip will last less than a week in 2023 while only 69% said the same in 2022.

Only 5% of those traveling plan to take a trip for longer than two weeks. When it comes to affording even short-term travel plans, 18% of those surveyed said that their holiday travel budget is “significantly less” than it was last year. The same number said that it was “significantly more” while 64% feel that there was no significant change to how much they can spend.

“Financial concerns are the biggest drag on travel spend, cited by two-thirds of those decreasing spend,” write the Deloitte report’s authors. “About 20% say they are spreading their spend across shorter trips throughout the year or are saving for a bigger trip.”

Here are some common ways to bring down the cost of your trip

At 58% of those saving money, a shorter trip is the single biggest step many are taking to ensure their travel remains affordable while staying with family (46%), driving instead of flying (24%) and choosing accommodation less luxurious than in previous years (24%) are also common strategies.

At the same time, the number of those staying in a hotel has also risen to 56% from the 35% seen last year as many also choose to keep the trip shorter but have the days one is away be more luxurious.

“Showing a lot of enthusiasm for travel, Americans are taking advantage of all the joy that the holiday season has to offer,” Deloitte’s Vice Chair of Transportation, Hospitality & Services Eileen Crowley said in a statement.

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