The 2014 Portrait of American Travelers, the annual survey released by MMGY Global, shows the emerging preferences, travel habits and goals of Americans every year. Industry players have long used this data to work on their brands, services and marketing strategies so they can deliver exactly what their customers are expecting.
The latest survey is once again quite a revelation. It shows that while 71 percent of Americans are looking forward to going far away from home, a whopping 75 percent have voted for relaxation as their top priority. But in the face of current global events, such as the violence in Israel and Ukraine, how likely are we to get these desired travel points really fulfilled?
Americans are perhaps more familiar with war than we are with peace, but never have we been so affected by the unrest occurring in various parts of the globe as we are today. Even the World Wars hadn't dashed our travel instincts as much as the events in the last few years have done.
Is it because we get to know too much, too soon? Maybe, but before we blame the information bombardment, perhaps we should ponder what we would have done without access to this information. Unaware of troubles brewing, we would have probably gone ahead with our travel plans and landed right into the line of fire.
There seems to be no end of the spate of unrest — and it's not just one part of the world.
On July 17 the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 stunned the world. The aircraft that was traveling from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, saw a gruesome end in eastern Ukraine. It was not an accidental crash but a deliberate shooting down of the aircraft by pro-Russian rebels, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Whatever their agenda was, they ended up killing all 298 people on board. There was already a ban on U.S. flight operations over the Crimea region, and this latest incident widened that territory to include eastern Ukraine airspace as well.
Travelers were still reeling from shock over these restrictions and increasing out-of-bounds regions when a rocket strike occurred just a mile away from Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. Heightened risks for American travelers led the FAA to prohibit U.S. airlines from flying into the Tel Aviv airport. Though the ban was lifted by the U.S. and other European countries within two days, they advised strong caution for travelers and carriers asking them to avoid the region.
Added to these are other accidents as well as recurring natural disasters around the world, like the Taiwan airplane crash in heavy rain and the Air Algerie flight, all of which are adding more fuel to the worrying fires.
Of course, authorities have always been careful about flight regulation during times of war and prohibiting flying through and over conflict zones to avoid unnecessary passenger risks. But prior to the Malaysia flight crash, regular passengers did not give so much thought to their flight maps and conflict zones affecting them directly.
The Israel-Gaza conflict is no sudden phenomenon, but the way tourism in the region has been affected, the countries are going to face the consequences for some time now. It has also opened up old wounds (civil unrest in African nations, Iraq and Afghanistan) and new (Syria and Egypt) that had not quite healed.
Sadly, conflict in one area adversely affects the whole region. The Middle East, which has offered intriguing possibilities to travelers for centuries, is no longer considered a safe zone for commercial travel.
The travel industry, which had projected promising figures in the beginning of the year, is now silent in face of these developments. Hoping to overcome the slump of the recent past, the industry has been rather upbeat with both domestic and international bookings showing good growth in the first six months.
But increasing conflict and travel risks have Americans worried, especially business travelers. Those traveling for leisure may find it easier to swallow their disappointment and change their itineraries, but it is not going to be as easy for the business travelers. A rise in global business ventures has seen U.S. business travel grow around 7.2 percent in volume in 2013 and has been slated to see steady 7.6 percent growth to $292.3 billion in 2014.
Along with outbound travel, incoming international footfalls are going to be a challenge as well. Rising unrest in any area will immediately tighten visa and immigration rules, which means fewer approvals for entry into the US.
Safety for the modern-day globetrotter is, of course, the highest concern for authorities, but one still can't help but wonder how much more bad news the travel industry can take.
