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Holidays may return to the U.S. calendar later this year, especially if vaccines help suppress the Covid-19 pandemic, but business travel will not recover for quite some time, according to an American forecast Hotel & Lodging Association.
Fifty-six percent of Americans say they are likely to travel for leisure in 2021, but 48 percent say their willingness to travel is related to vaccination in some way, according to the report “AHLA’s State of the Hotel Industry 2021 “published earlier this month.
The findings echo a recent ValuePenguin survey of 1,200 consumers who found that 57% had planned vacations this year, with 16% being booked just after learning of new vaccines.
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Among travelers, 34% are comfortable with the idea of staying in a hotel, according to AHLA. And improved cleaning and hygiene practices are now the number 2 priority for consumers, behind price, when booking hotels.
By comparison, business travel is not expected to return to 2019 levels until at least 2023 or 2024, according to AHLA. Business travel will drop by 85% through April, compared to 2019, and then only slowly increase.
Only 29% of frequent business travelers who continue to work say they expect to travel to a conference during the first half of 2021. Another 36% believe the second half of the year is more likely and 20% do not expect to travel until 2022 or later.
Of course, half of U.S. hotel rooms are likely to remain unoccupied by 2021. The housing sector, with a drop of nearly 4 million jobs compared to the same time in 2019, experienced a rate unemployment rate of 18.9% in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Covid-19 has ended 10 years of hotel occupancy growth,” Chip Rogers, president and CEO of AHLA, said in a statement. “Despite the challenges facing the hotel industry, we are resilient.
“Hotels across the country are focusing on creating a prepared environment for guests when they start returning trips,” he added.
The AHLA report consolidated the findings of several surveys conducted in December and January. Morning Consult conducted the consumer survey of 2,200 adults January 7-9 and the business traveler survey of 400 adults January 7-12. Ecolab conducted the consumer safety survey on December 10 among 556 adults.