Hotwire Predicts 2015 Will Be Year of Millennial Traveler

Hotwire.com today released additional findings from its 2014 American Travel Behavior Survey, which point to the growing power of the millennial traveler.

Hotwire.com today released additional findings from its 2014 American Travel Behavior Survey, which point to the growing power of the millennial traveler. The survey was conducted online in October 2014 on behalf of Hotwire® by Harris Poll among over 2,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. According to the survey, millennial travelers have a greater desire to travel more than their older counterparts and are looking for the best deals in 2015.  

More specifically, the report contained the following American Travel Behavior Survey findings:  

• More than any other age group, approximately one-third of millennials intend on traveling more in 2015.
• Those ages 18-34 are more likely than their older counterparts to say they:
  • Intend to take one or two large vacations in 2015 (35 percent vs. 23 percent of those ages 45-54).
  • Intend to be more deal conscious when booking travel in 2015 (24 percent vs. 16 percent of those ages 65+).
  • Intend to be more spontaneous in 2015 (19 percent vs. 11 percent of those ages 45-54 and 10 percent of those ages 65+).
• Younger adults ages 18-34 (70 percent) are more likely to have any money in their travel budget each year than those ages 45+ (55 percent).
  • Millennials set aside a total of $226 billion¹ for their travel budget.

"Millennial travelers are impacting the travel industry in a big way, particularly given their overall excitement and interest in taking more trips," said Henrik Kjellberg, president of the Hotwire Group. "Since they're concerned with finding the best deals, Hotwire offers insights and tools that can help not only millennials but all travelers get more for their money and take more trips in 2015."    

In an effort to help make millennial travel intentions become reality, Hotwire polled this audience to find out where they wanted to visit in the New Year and their travel experts mined internal pricing data to pair the 15 most sought after destinations for 2015 with the most affordable months to visit.

The above list of 15 destinations was determined by Hotwire's American Travel Behavior Survey. Respondents ages 18-35 were asked if they could take one more vacation than you originally planned for 2015, which U.S. cities they would travel to. The Best Month to Visit was calculated based on the minimum average price per night for the location in 2014. The Average Price Per Night was calculated based on the average nightly rate for the best month. The Percent Savings vs. Peak Season was calculated based on the minimum average nightly rate and the maximum average nightly rate of the year 2014.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Hotwire® from October 23-27, 2014 among 2,011 adults ages 18 and older. The 2013 survey was conducted from October 8-10, 2013 among 2,020 adults ages 18 and older. These online surveys are not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact monica.caires@grayling.com. 

¹Calculation based on U.S. Census Bureau's Young Generations press release in December 2014 (http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-219.html), which estimates there are 73 million adults ages 18-34 residing in the United States: Multiplied average amount set aside in travel budget per American adults ages 18-34 in 2014 by estimated number of adults residing in the United States: $3,100 x 73,000,000.