Fewer Americans are planning summer travel

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: Every year at this time we ask what people have planned for summer. 

What we found: Um, we’re planning nothing? We kind of expected, given all the things, that big international travel would be down, and it is — with just 27% saying they have international travel plans in the works for summer 2025 vs. 34% last summer. 

But everything is down. Dining out: down 8 points. Going to see live sports? Down 7 points. “Getting away from it all and unplugging”? Down 8 points. But the big hit is the long road trip of more than 100 miles, which is down 13 points to 58%. These figures are all down from two years ago, too.

As you can imagine, this has some implications. It’s one thing to assume data like this is high: people don’t always follow through on their plans. But if we’re not even planning… This feels a lot like an outcome of economic uncertainty. 

Speaking of uncertainty, we brought back one of the earliest tracker questions about how people are feeling overall, economically. The picture is consistently not great. Fewer say that they can put away money each month (59%, down from 68% a year ago). Fewer say they will be better off than their parents (44%, down from 50%). More say they worry about paying their bills each month (40%, up from 35%). 

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Half of Americans want tariff price labels, and are unsure what's being tariffed

Fewer Americans think prices are rising

The Ipsos Vibe Check: Here's how worried Americans are about the government this week

The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about