Spending patterns are changing as more Americans stay closer to home for vacations and choose road trips over flying.Americans are choosing road trips over flights as they choose a safer-perceived way to vacation, and that's having an economic impact, say analysts who follow the travel and retail industries. The phenomenon is expected to last at least through the end of 2020, if not early 2021, but it remains to be seen if this is a structural change in consumer habits.
While the overall travel spend this year versus last year is "awful," Estrin says, by the summer it had picked up from spring levels. Shields says retail sales data shows an uptick in other categories related to road trips. Although new car sales are down, this summer saw a rise in the aftermarket auto parts sales as people sought to tackle car maintenance they had otherwise put off earlier in the year when they weren't commuting to work. "If you're going on a road trip, that's 300, 400, 500 miles across the country, you can't put off that maintenance anymore," he says.
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