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WASHINGTON – Travel demand in the U.S. remains low, even as tens of millions of Americans are vaccinated against COVID-19, with only 12% planning a spring break trip this year, the industry said on Thursday.
The sector was devastated last year by the collapse in travel demand due to the pandemic. The US Travel Association said that a survey it commissioned suggests that Americans remain cautious about travel and that “it is unclear when the demand for travel will recover on its own.”
The industry again asked for new tax credits to stimulate leisure and business travel.
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“We really cannot recover until we have this pandemic under control,” said US Travel Association chief executive Roger Dow, adding that corporate travel departments still advise employees not to travel.
The travel industry has also been hit by restrictions that have prevented millions of international travelers from coming to the United States for non-essential travel from Europe, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still discouraging Americans from any non-essential travel. The group asks the United States government to set a goal to resume international travel, which continues to fall by almost 80%.
In early 2020, the U.S. travel industry employed 16.9 million people, which fell to 8.7 million in April 2020. It rebounded to 13 million jobs in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .
Hotels, airlines, restaurants, convention centers and other travel destinations are still suffering and major events remain virtual. Many travel destinations remain closed like Disneyland, while others, such as professional sporting events, have limited fans.
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The industry said the number it plans to travel on spring break fell by 16% in a survey the week before.
The group believes that travel demand will recover significantly until Memorial Day on May 31. President Joe Biden said this week that the United States would have enough COVID-19 vaccine for every American adult by the end of May.