Sixty-nine percent of Americans will not travel during the December holiday season, the Morning Consult reported in a new survey.
Only 32 percent of respondents said they had taken an overnight vacation or any kind of leisure trip since March, and 44 percent said their next stay in a hotel is a year or more away. Only 8 percent plan a business trip in the next six months.
The December holiday season is the hotel industry’s most intensely busy time but, this year, more than half of all hotel rooms nationwide are likely to remain empty.
The dire season ahead is another reason why Congress needs to provide targeted aid to the industry, said Chip Rogers, CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), in a statement from the association.
“With a dramatic decline expected for holiday travel, it is all the more important that Congress pass a relief bill now,” he said. “We cannot afford to wait until the next Congress is sworn in for relief. [Our members] need help now.”
The AHLA’s most recent member survey found:
- “71 percent of U.S. inns say they can last no more than six months at current occupancy rates without government aid;
- 34 percent say they will permanently close within three months without supports;
- 82 percent of hoteliers report being unable to win additional debt relief or concessions from creditors;
- 59 percent of hotel owners say they are in danger of losing their properties to foreclosure.”
TREND FORECAST: 2020 is the year the world changed. That we are writing about hundreds of millions of people across the globe canceling holiday travel plans, whether to meet with family or take a vacation, is a profoundly horrific scenario.
What is being imposed on humanity by politicians to fight their COVID War – which has a 99.8 percent recovery rate and predominantly a threat to the elderly and those suffering from chronic pre-existing health conditions – is inhuman.