New survey alerts softening U.S. journey demand heading into 2026

Travel has confirmed remarkably resilient in 2025 regardless of some fairly important financial headwinds.

In their simply introduced third-quarter earnings, airways steered that issues have stabilized after a weaker-than-expected begin to the 12 months — however all the most important carriers have decrease expectations than they did firstly of 2025.

Tariffs, inflation and excessive rates of interest proceed to weigh on customers, which is inflicting some weak spot in demand for airways and inns. We’ve additionally seen a substantial drop in worldwide guests to the U.S.

Still, current polling from YouGov commissioned by TPG means that whereas some American customers are planning on slicing again on journey subsequent 12 months, a majority will nonetheless spend the identical or much more in 2026.

Related: Need to know: The 6 high journey traits for 2025

Consumers are nonetheless desirous to journey

Nearly 40% of customers (39%) plan to spend much less on journey in 2026, however 57% stated they plan on spending the identical or barely extra.

Interestingly, in accordance with our new polling, on the subject of spending much less, girls (43%) are the driving power, not males (35%).

While simply 39% of customers plan on spending much less in 2026 than they did in 2025, this nonetheless presents a stark change from only a few months in the past. In polling TPG commissioned earlier this year, only 9% were traveling less in 2025 than the year before. That suggests that the number of people who are cutting back is increasing, a worrisome sign for the travel industry.

Consumers are looking for ways to save

Consumers are making efforts to cut trip expenses. The primary ways to save on travel include driving instead of flying, staying in less expensive accommodations and choosing dates and destinations based on price. That means some consumers are choosing to stay in less popular places.

That follows our general advice at TPG to go where the dollar is strong, travel during off-peak dates and visit secondary cities or countries that are a bit more off the beaten path (think: Albania, Slovenia or Hungary in Europe instead of Switzerland or Italy).

Related: 13 underrated summer travel destinations

Generation Z is significantly more likely to save money by staying in less expensive accommodations and visiting less popular destinations, while baby boomers and older travelers prefer driving over other money-saving strategies.

A falling dollar is playing a role

The dollar has lost about 10% of its value to date in 2025. That has some customers shifting their plans, with 14% saying they may journey domestically as an alternative of internationally and one other 8% saying they’re touring to international locations the place the greenback stays robust.

Still, 67% of these polled stated it wasn’t making a distinction.

Some are reconsidering worldwide journey

It’s been a 12 months of upheaval in worldwide relations, with reviews of international visitors being questioned extensively at U.S. borders and an ongoing trade war rattling markets and nerves. All of that has some of us rethinking worldwide journey.

According to our new YouGov/TPG polling, barely greater than 1 / 4 of people are reconsidering worldwide journey in gentle of current turmoil within the U.S.

Younger generations are much less prone to cancel or change their worldwide journey habits in comparison with Generation X and older generations.

Bottom line

While the urge for food for journey stays robust, extra Americans are planning to journey much less subsequent 12 months and are on the lookout for methods to spend much less once they do journey.

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