Most of the travel planning consumers conduct online is for leisure trips such as vacations, visits to friends and relatives, or outdoor recreation trips. On average, these consumers take about 10 leisure trips per year. Given that one of every two online planners is a Baby Boomer, it is not surprising that 33 percent of them are married with children. Sixty-eight percent call or visit state tourism offices less often. Fifty-seven percent say they're ordering travel brochures by phone less often.
Consumers seek out several types of website content when planning trips online.
The reports indicate that about one in five online planners are using the web to help them choose a destination in the first place. The end of the hotel industry's construction boom of the late 1990s, a potential economic slowdown and the expectations of higher rates, has already impelled corporate travel managers to prepare for the worse. With demand catching up with supply, the hotel industry might be in the best position of all industries to ride through an economic slowdown. This data reveals that while rates are increasing due to a decrease in supply, demand might be unpredictable this year due to the potential of an economic slowdown. Corporations may take actions to avoid high rates in cities like Washington, New York and San Francisco and may seek to stay in cities where rates are competitive like Dallas and Orlando.