Study Reveals Americans’ Top Domestic Destinations

TNS -- Hotels, 9/2/2008 9:20:00 AM

Have you ever wondered where the best travel “hot spots” are in the U.S.? If so, look no further.  TNS, a world leader in market insight and information, today released the results of its American Traveler Study, which unveils domestic travel preferences of Americans. In addition, the survey reveals the TNS Traveler Satisfaction Index, which scores destinations based on how many of their visitors leave satisfied.

Conducted for ten years, the American Traveler Study is an industry-wide effort to understand leisure and business travel habits and interrelationships, including travel choices and motivations, trends, booking patterns, attitudes and satisfaction levels.  As American travelers continue to face downward pressure on available vacation time from employers, which has been declining steadily for the past nine years, the way they spend vacation time and the destinations they choose to visit has become even more important.

TNS asked more than 8,000 American respondents which states they had vacationed to in the past year.  Based on their responses, the top five U.S. travel destinations are:

Florida
California
New York
Nevada
Pennsylvania
 

To create the TNS Traveler Satisfaction Index, the same respondents were asked which domestic destinations they especially like among those they have visited in the past three years. The destinations were then ranked beginning with the highest score. Based on their responses, the U.S. destinations with the highest satisfaction rating are:

Hawaii
Alaska
California
Florida
Nevada
 

“With the top ranked destinations, there is a ‘what you see is what you get’ feature that resonates well with Americans,” said Rick Cain, Senior Vice President, TNS.  “The vacations are predictable.  People generally know what they’re getting in terms of weather and activity, and that makes them easier to plan, easier to get excited about and easier to replicate.”

The survey also measured the destinations with the most growth potential by pinpointing where travelers expect to go in the next three years compared to where they have been in the past three years. The states that came out on top are Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Maine and Montana.

“Year after year, we are seeing the same destinations at the top of our growth potential list,” commented Cain. “These are the destinations that people are hoping to work into their travel plans, but may not have gotten around to visiting.  In this area, we see more diverse locations, spanning from Hawaii to Alaska, which are already quite popular. In addition, we’re seeing places like Maine and Montana, which are less traditional, but offer different and interesting activities and a break from crowds.”

Methodology

TNS surveyed more than 15,000 Americans through the mail to complete this survey. The survey was conducted February 1, 2008 through February 29, 2008.