Richmond, VA, June 16 2021 — After more than a year of Americans shelving travel plans amid the pandemic, the 2021 forecast for summer vacation spending is set to break records.  Allianz Partners USA's 13th annual Vacation Confidence Index* estimates Americans’ total spend will likely cross the $150 billion mark for the first time in the index’s decade-long history, amounting to $153,700,000,000. This represents a 160% increase over the summer vacation spend in locked-down 2020 and an impressive 50% increase over a robust 2019.

This year, Americans are planning to spend more on their summer vacations than ever before, with an anticipated average of $2,122 spend per vacationing household, the second time the figure has topped $2,000 since the travel insurance and assistance company began tracking vacation habits in 2010. Prior to the pandemic in 2019, Allianz found that vacationing Americans planned to spend $2,037 on summer vacation, which dropped more than 7% in 2020 to $1,888 during an unprecedented summer season as the country faced waves of new infections.

Not surprisingly, with COVID-19 vaccinations now underway, restrictions lessening and mounting pent-up demand, Americans’ confidence in taking a summer vacation is at an all-time high this year: 60% of Americans say they are confident they will take a vacation (up from 42% in 2019 and 26% in 2020), which is defined as a leisure trip of at least a week to a place that is 100 miles or more from home.

Leading the trend: younger Americans feel hopeful they’ll take a vacation, with 73% of respondents aged 18-34 citing confidence, versus 51% of those in the 55+ population (and 60% for those aged 35-54), who may be taking a more cautious approach emerging from the pandemic. Higher income-earning households (75% who make $100,000+ a year) are also feeling confident, and the survey found men (67%), who have proven more comfortable around COVID-19, are more likely than women (55%) to be confident. The gender confidence gap has grown – pre-pandemic in 2019, men were only five points more likely to take a summer vacation than women. 

For Americans who aren’t confident they’ll take a summer vacation (29%, compared to 8% who said they’ll travel at some other time, and 2% who already took a summer vacation at the time of the survey), 38% percent said they didn’t want to spend the money and 44% noted it was due to other reasons, likely COVID-driven and amid increased concerns about health and safety. Other reasons for low or no confidence in a vacation are that it’s too stressful or time-consuming to plan (12%), not wanting to take off from work (11%) and not wanting to take time off due to a personal obligation that’s not work-related (8%).

“Summer 2021 will be remembered as the summer that Americans finally stopped taking their vacations for granted and eagerly hit the road with a revenge travel budget,” said Daniel Durazo, director of marketing and communications at Allianz Partners USA. “Our annual Vacation Confidence Index shows that the concept of pent up demand is real and will likely translate to $150 billion in vacation spending, which will shatter all previous records. Interest in travel insurance has also never been higher as Americans are looking to protect their trip with a policy that provides coverage for unexpected cancellations, interruptions, delays and medical emergencies.”

The Vacation Confidence Index has been conducted each summer since 2010 by national polling firm Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of Allianz Partners USA.

Although Allianz travel insurance products generally do not cover known, foreseeable, or expected events, epidemics, government prohibitions, warnings, or travel advisories, or fear of travel, Allianz Partners USA recently anncounced the rollout of its new Epidemic Coverage Endorsement, which adds enhancements for new purchasers of some of its travel insurance products that may provide coverage to customers who become ill with COVID-19 or a future epidemic, are individually ordered to quarantine,** or are denied boarding due to a suspected illness. This new coverage formalizes and adds to some of the temporary accommodations the company put into place in March 2020 to assist travelers who had been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

Methodology: These are findings of an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Allianz Partners USA. For this survey, a sample of 2,009 Americans aged 18+ was interviewed from May 24 to 28, 2021 via the Ipsos Online Omnibus. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the results are accurate to within +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had all American adults been polled. Quota sampling and weighting were employed in order to balance demographics and ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Credibility intervals are wider among subsets of the population.

**Benefits for quarantines only apply when an eligible traveler is specifically named and individually ordered to quarantine by order or official directive of a government, public regulatory authority, or the captain of a commercial vessel on which that eligible traveler is booked to travel during the covered trip, based on that eligible traveler’s exposure to COVID-19. The benefit does not cover travel restrictions (whether or not they are referred to as “quarantine”) that apply generally or broadly (a) to some segment or all of a population, geographical area, building, or vessel (including without limitation shelter-in-place, stay-at-home, safer-at-home, or other similar restriction), or (b) based on to, from, or through where the person is traveling. Coverage may not cover the full cost of your quarantine and is subject to applicable benefit limits. See your plan for details.