Fierce hurricanes and flooding throughout the United States in recent weeks haven’t completely stopped Americans from heading to their shores. According to the U.S. Travel Association, about 15 million travelers left the country in August, when half were either traveling by car or taking a ferry or plane to their vacation spot. The results of many searches for summer stays were especially strong, including about 16 million for flights, 4.4 million for hotels and 4.1 million for car rentals. As was expected, hotel reservations, bookings and reservations at attractions like national parks were down sharply. However, tours are still popular: 48 million travelers are expected to take sightseeing trips during the peak travel period from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Americans also took an estimated 111 million trips outside the U.S. in 2018.
Others are being just as resilient. According to the bureau, “The majority of inquiries to Summer Airlines and Hotels were positive, with 20% of inquiries coming from tourists from the U.S. and the majority of them local. 55% of enquiries came from nearby states; 17% came from very close states; and 15% came from overseas.” The U.S. Travel Association is expected to release its monthly report on travel trends, including hotel reservations, at the end of September.