African American Travel Accounts for $63 Billion Market
The second study in a series documenting the impact of African American travelers demonstrates their growing contribution to the United States travel and tourism economy to the tune of $63 billion in 2018.
The new study, completed by Mandala Research, follows up on the firm’s original study in 2010 establishing the benchmark for understanding this segment of the traveling population.
The survey polled 1,700 respondents, representative of the African American population that travels.
Key takeaways from the survey:
The economic value of African American travelers has increased in 2018 to $63 billion from $48 billion in 2010. African American “cultural” travelers are the highest spenders, with an average per trip spend of $2,078 versus $1,345 for all African American travelers.
More than half reported that their most recent leisure destination was between 100-500 miles from home with Florida, New York City/New York, and Atlanta being top US destinations and Caribbean/Bahamas (38 percent) and Mexico (26 percent) mentioned as leading international destinations
Food and shopping are leading spend categories with nearly half of travelers spending on local and/or regional cuisine on their most recent leisure trip. Shopping continues to be a popular activity for vacationers, most often at malls (41 percent) and outlet malls (34 percent), but also downtown (28 percent).
The report also highlights where and how African Americans source information on where to go, the activities they participate in, and segment analysis, looking at family reunion travelers, cultural travelers, and leisure travelers who also travel for business.
The importance of African American culture and history also plays a role in destination choice for these travelers.
Sixty-four percent of cultural African American travelers, the highest spending segment of travelers, say the availability of African American cultural and heritage attractions is very important to their choice of destination for their leisure travel. For family reunion travelers, the importance of African American cultural and heritage attractions is 43 percent.
While the major barriers to travel are similar to the general travel market, with 28 percent saying they are too busy to travel and 25 percent reporting they can’t afford it, 15 percent say that concerns about racial profiling play a role in their travel decisions, similar to the impact of not having anyone to travel with, or airport hassles (13 percent).
The 2018 African American Traveler Study is based on interviews with 1,747 African-American leisure travelers in the United States in March and April of 2018. The data was collected online using nationally representative online partner panels.
To qualify for the survey, respondents must have taken at least one trip within the United States in the past 12 months for pleasure, vacation, or personal purposes that was 50+ miles away from home one-way OR where the traveler spent at least one overnight and have shared or have sole responsibility for travel planning.
