What do American travellers want? A PhoCusWright survey sheds light.

Upscale travellers tend to stay in luxury hotels like Singapore's Marina Bay Sands. Photo courtesy of Yeoh Siew Hoon

PhoCusWright's Consumer Travel Report Second Edition offers these key insights into US consumer traveller trends.

Travel takes a one-two punch
Not only did fewer people travel (-11%), but those who did travel spent less (-15%).

Recovery will be restrained
While fewer consumers plan to pull back on their travel in 2010, the percentage of those who plan to travel more has not increased.

Quality, not quantity
Even though travellers took fewer trips in 2009 compared to 2008, the trips they took were longer; trips of four nights or longer accounted for 59% of all trips in 2009.

Economy busts the boomers
Older consumers (45+) pulled back on travel earlier than younger travellers, and were less likely to travel in general.

Reality bites
Younger travellers (under age 35) showed larger year-over-year declines in travel spend than older travelers, and their optimism about travel intentions has sobered. However, they still had a significantly higher incidence of travel than older travelers.

Planning is more focused
The number of sites used across the destination selection, shopping and booking phases has decreased slightly from 2008.

OTAs gain on hotel sites
Online travel agencies (OTAs) gained share among hotel bookers, but not so much with air.

Upscale travellers want it all
Bigger-spend travellers are more likely to patronise upscale and luxury hotels than lower-spend travellers, but they are also almost as likely to stay in midscale hotels.

WIT 2010: October 19-22 SUNTEC Singapore ~ www.webintravel.com