Vacation Time! 140 million Americans have received a first vaccine dose, 42% of the U.S. population.

The hospitality industry is poised for a rebound as millions of Americans are gearing up for their next big trip.

Pack your bag and load the car because the travel drought is over.

We’re talking about vacation deprivation — just one of the many side effects caused by the pandemic that’s gripped our nation. But, thankfully, it’s about to end for many very anxious-to-travel Americans.

Check out these stats, courtesy of an annual study by Expedia:

• 46% of Americans canceled a trip in the last year.
• 36% of Americans plan to resume taking a regular vacation this year.
• Another 32% of Americans plan to take even more vacation this year to make up for 2020.
• 81% of working adults value vacation more than ever.

In other words, Americans are ready to hit the road.

That’s due to pent-up wanderlust to be sure, but also to the new vaccines that have rolled out. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Health (CDC), as of April 25, nearly 140 million people have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine administered in the United States, including about 94.8 million people who have been fully vaccinated by Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine or the two-dose series made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. And the CDC’s official guidance on travel is that fully vaccinated people “can travel safely” within the United States.

So, where does all of that leave the travel and hospitality industry? Ready for a huge rebound.

“We are now seeing people far more confident about traveling,” Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research, told The Washington Post. “Whether it’s because they’re testing negative for the virus or perhaps they’ve been vaccinated, people are more willing to travel right now.”

The new confidence in traveling means the rebound of the hotel industry, as evidenced by the highest level of hotel traffic per Safegraph since pre covid, and hotels are open in all 50 states per the Points Guy. All of this creates a great opportunity for advertisers.

Hotel guests are very attractive to advertisers, as they are out of the house, wallets in hand and spenders. The 2019 Oxford Economics – Economic Impact of the U.S. Hotel Industry Report highlights that for each $100 of hotel spending, an additional $222 is spent on ancillary spending.

Hotel guests buying power during their stay is $278 billion annually, broken into the following categories:

• Transportation $126 billion
• Food & Beverage $65 billion
• Recreation $45 billion
• Retail $41 billion

The buying power of hotel guests and the opportunity to influence that spending creates a real opportunity for digital out-of-home (DOOH) signage in and around hotels.

Here are a few stats on that:

• Magna expects spending on out-of-home (OOH) advertising to increase by 11.3% in 2021, after a decline of 24.2% in 2020. And DOOH is expected to grow 15% in 2021.
• 34% of U.S. adults living in a larger metropolitan area report that OOH advertising influences their purchasing decisions, according to a survey done by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA).
• 45% of U.S. adults surveyed in January said they are noticing OOH advertising more than before the pandemic began, according to the OAAA.

Indeed, industry experts are bullish on the travel and hospitality industry’s future. In April of last year, the industry occupancy rate was only 22%, but it was already up to 50% — and climbing by February of this year.

“People in this country still want to travel; they still want to explore,” Motel 6 CEO Rob Palleschi recently told D Magazine. “They’re just going to do it differently.”

A final bit of good news is that active leisure travelers — defined as those who plan to travel within the next year — expect to take 3.7 overnight leisure trips this year and spend an average of $2,415 on those trips, according to research done by MMGY Global.

Ready to reconnect with your target audience—now that they are on the move? Work with us so we can put your message across our extensive hospitality network of more than 450 Extended Stay America properties and an additional 18,000+ bars and restaurants that they visit during their stay.

Ready to learn more? Email mediasales@velocitymsc.com.