The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is a comprehensive source of facts and figures related to employers and the US workforce, with a major purpose to influence federal and state government policy and legislation. This particular statistic I discovered describes the portion of annual household expenditures (not income) spent on travel. The most recent study was done back in 2008 and asked about spending on vacation and pleasure trips, also referred to as “leisure travel.”
U.S. consumer spending on travel as a percentage of total annual household expenses: 3%
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics: Spotlight on Statistics (Travel) – July 2010
Broken down into categories, transportation made up largest share (44%) followed by food and beverages (23%), lodging (23%), and lastly entertainment (10%).
The average dollar amount was a grand total of $1,415.
To drill down into a bit more detail, households in the top 20% income bracket spent on average $3,718 – more than twice the overall average. Even at this upper end of the spectrum, it could be sufficient to cover a trip for 2.6 (average household size) from the U.S. to an overseas destination like Europe or maybe Asia, assuming no other vacations were taken that year and the trip was kept to a budget. For upper income couples that take multiple vacations per year or families with one or more children, this reported dollar amount does not stretch very far.
For the “average” family (spending $1,415), international trips would be well out of reach unless spending was doubled which seems unlikely even during good economic times. Is this one reason why most Americans travel domestically and rarely if ever have or take the opportunity to vacation overseas? It is often quoted how few U.S. citizens have passports (under 30%) and that number has grown in recent years mostly because a passport is now required to visit Canada, Mexico, and islands in the Caribbean. Does this mean that Americans don’t desire to travel to Europe, Asia, South America, or Africa, or it is simply a matter of affordability? If a flight to Europe from major cities in the U.S. suddenly dropped to $300 or $400, would Americans jump at the chance to visit a foreign country? Unfortunately this survey does not begin to address choice of vacation destination and what impact total spending has upon distance traveled.
What do you think? What can the U.S. or state government do to encourage more annual spending on travel as a way to promote a healthy work-life balance and at the same time increase tax revenues? And if people in the U.S. increased their travel budget and more families could afford a trip to Europe, would international travel become more commonplace? I plan to write more about these important topics so I welcome your comments below.
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What if instead of additional days of vacation, employers offered “vacation pay” that could only be applied toward trips. If you don’t travel, you don’t get the money…