Member-only story

Is Domestic Travel Helping or Hurting National Parks & Rural Communities?

Macala Rose
6 min readJul 26, 2020

--

Adobe Stock Images

National parks, road trips, and Airbnb staycations are top fall travel plans in 2020. Here’s how it’s impacting local travel and tourism businesses, towns, and community residents.

Travel and tourism have taken a serious blow because of COVD-19; the pandemic has brought travel to a near standstill. By the end of this year, it’s estimated that the U.S. travel and tourism industry will have lost $505 billion dollars, and those losses won’t be recovered until 2024. The industry has now entered what The Travel U.S. Association has called, “The Great Travel Recession.”

Are Americans going to travel again? Yes. According to a recent study from Longwoods International found that 82% of travelers have changed to trips they felt were safer within their local geographic regions. As stay-at-home orders lifted and states reopened, many U.S. residents have started to travel again.

What Does Domestic Travel Look Like for U.S. Residents?

Most travelers are sticking within 100 miles of where they live. Their sights are set on national parks and local vacation spots where they book longer stays at rental properties. According to the U.S. Travel Association, the limited range is largely due to weariness about catching and…

--

--

Macala Rose
Macala Rose

Written by Macala Rose

Data Analyst who loves to visualize behavior. Trauma-Informed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Facilitator. www.macalarose.com

No responses yet