Top Destinations of Summer 2021
A Look Into the Travels of Miles Members
In a summer that saw a resurgence of travel, Miles wanted to ask the question: where did people decide to go? From the top destinations and busiest periods of summer getaways to how frequently people went on vacation, Miles is able to give a unique insight into the preferences of our users.
To determine whether a vacation was underway, we selected groupings of trips, dubbed “journeys”, that occurred 100 miles away from the region people live in. These journeys were comprised of 30 or more trips within the boundaries of a city to eliminate the trips recorded by people simply passing through. By these parameters over 68,000 people in the Miles community took summer vacations between June 20th and August 31st!
Can you guess which cities in the United States saw the most out-of-towners?
Drum roll, please! Coming in at the top of the list is Orlando, popular for family-friendly theme parks and warm summer sun. Las Vegas, America’s playground, comes in at a close second, and New York City, renowned worldwide for its enchanting appeal, rounds out the top 3. Are there any cities in the chart above that you’re surprised to see or not see? Do you live in any of these cities? Leave a comment below — we’d love to hear!
The Peaks of Summer Travel
Some of the busiest times for summer travel in the States are right when kids get out of school, right before they go back, and of course 4th of July weekend! (June 20–26; Aug 15–21; July 1–5)
In the Just over 1,000,000 trips made the cut in our survey and of these three periods, there were 252,000 trips taken in these three weeks alone! That’s 1/4 of the trips compressed into 1/16 of the timeframe analyzed.
The week of the 4th of July is quite astounding. Of the people who went on a journey during the summer, only 15,700 people recorded a trip within their home region during this popular holiday weekend (see Chart 2). Compare this to a more typical week which sees a range between 150,000 and 650,000 users taking trips inside their home region. This means that nearly all of the people who took a vacation this summer were out of town during the week of July 4th!
In Chart 3, the number of travelers taking trips outside of their home location makes a sharp increase from late May into early July and is sustained for the rest of summer. While the volume of people is drastically different between these charts, Chart 3 demonstrates that people are taking advantage of the summer months with consistent vacations until school resumes in late August.
How Many Vacations Did People Take?
As mentioned above, over 68,000 people went on a “journey” — a series of 30 or more trips 100 miles from home. This means that at least this amount went on a vacation this summer. But some people went on far more vacations than others.
As seen in Chart 4, most people took only 1 journey during summer — approximately 19,500 people. The number of users who subsequently took more than 1 journey during summer trends downwards at an exponential rate. The data shown for 21+ journeys is a cumulative amount which includes one person who took 184 journeys in summer! Now that’s a lot of traveling.
Summer 2021: Wrapped
With summer travels in the rearview mirror, what lies beyond? It is evident that people are taking to the roads again — and getting value for their vacations with Miles! Many Miles members are choosing warm-weather destinations for summer travel which may become more pronounced as we head into cooler months. Presumably, the most popular times for travel will fall in line with major holidays so will these top destinations remain similar as people look for warm retreats, or will we see a different story where people spread across the country to visit family members? Stay tuned as we continue to report on the fascinating travel preferences of the Miles community!
