What are the fastest growing travel destinations in the US?
What can new data tell us about the domestic travel habits of Americans?
The US, in case you’re not aware, is pretty big. Big enough, and geographically varied enough, that US citizens have a wealth of wildly different holiday destinations to choose from, without the worry and expense of actually leaving the country.
With this in mind, financial and travel research firm Upgraded Points (UP) has released a new report, analysing flight data from within the US in order to determine which destinations are growing in – and losing – popularity. It gathered information from the country’s busiest airports and compared flight arrivals and departures year-on-year, with the resulting report being ‘quite revealing’, according to UP Founder Alex Miller.
“Not only does it show us the most exciting vacation locations chosen for any given season or year,” he explained, “it also reveals that a traveller’s origin greatly influences where they like to visit. For instance: seeking a beach to flee the winter or moving from the plains to the mountains. One thing is certain – travel preferences are not constant. Americans like variation when it comes to their travel habits.”
According to UP’s analysis, California was the most popular state overall. Of the 20 origin airports that UP studied, nine of them included at least one airport in California in their top five most popular destinations – for example, the number of passengers on flights from Chicago to Burbank rose by an eye-popping 1,164 per cent over the 12-month period analysed, while a 94-per-cent rise was noted in passengers travelling between Dallas-Fort Worth and Oakland.
UP also pointed out that Milwaukee, Wisconsin is growing in popularity, as are San Antonio, Texas (which was the fast-growing destination from origin airports in Fort Lauderdale and Philadelphia), Richmond, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida. Additionally, data showed that Seattle saw almost 50 million passengers pass through, Detroit saw over 35 million, Houston saw nearly 44 million, Boston saw more than 40 million and San Francisco saw nearly 58 million.
While it, of course, makes sense that Americans would choose to holiday in their own country, it has been noted in the past that many US travellers are unaware of the importance of purchasing travel insurance for domestic trips. The chances of an accident or other unexpected incident occurring are not somehow magically lowered because the traveller isn’t holidaying abroad; hopefully travel insurers in the US will continue to promote their essential product so that these travellers can continue to safely enjoy the delights that America has to offer.