Excessive fuel costs and airfare are altering summer time journey plans for hundreds of thousands of Americans

(InvestigateTV) — A brand new LendingTree survey finds transportation prices are taking a toll on summer time journey plans, with 75% of shoppers saying bills like fuel and airfare have affected their selections.

Matt Schulz, chief shopper finance analyst at LendingTree, mentioned the affect is important.

“Almost 40% of Americans say that they’re not going to travel between May and September of this year,” Schulz mentioned. “And the big reason for it is the high gas prices, high airfares.”

Schulz mentioned the survey discovered some shoppers are scaling again plans, altering locations or skipping leisure journey altogether.

“When life is really expensive, sacrifices and tough choices have to be made,” Schulz mentioned.

For those that do journey, the survey discovered many are in search of methods to spend much less. Schulz mentioned one possibility gaining traction is swapping long-distance journeys for nearer locations.

“I would suspect that there’s an awful lot of people who instead of maybe flying to some destination a good ways from home, maybe going to their local state park or national park or something like that,” Schulz mentioned.

Schulz mentioned flexibility is without doubt one of the simplest instruments for managing journey prices.

“Maybe the best thing that you can do is to be flexible,” Schulz mentioned. “The more that you can kind of keep your options open and be flexible and open to different ideas, the more options you have and the more control you will have over price.”

Schulz additionally mentioned bank card rewards are a great tool for offsetting journey bills. He added that vacationers ought to prioritize long-term monetary well being earlier than making short-term splurges, noting that overspending on a single journey can create monetary stress that lasts for months. Building in a buffer for sudden bills can be beneficial for individuals who do determine to journey.