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Travelers 70-Plus Plan to Spend Less on Travel in 2023

Anticipated spending on travel declined more than 40 percent for this age group

woman with a suitcase and a passport
Getty Images
By

Nicole Gill Council,

 
AARP
Published March 01, 2023

As the nation emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, travel remains a priority among people 50-plus. However, the amount of money people will spend on travel in 2023 is down from last year, according to the AARP 2023 Travel Trends report.

About 62 percent of 50-plus travelers plan to take at least one leisure trip this year, according to the survey of 2,000 people conducted Nov. 10, 2022, through Dec. 5, 2022. The 15-minute online survey addressed those 18 and older. Leisure travel, or personal travel, is defined as taking a trip at least 50 miles from home for two or more nights.

Though travel is the top priority for discretionary spending by travelers 50-plus, they plan to spend $6,688 in 2023, a 20 percent decrease from $8,369 last year. The survey found the decline is driven by travelers 70-plus who plan to spend $6,777 in 2023, more than 40 percent less than they anticipated spending in 2022.

It’s hard to say definitively why the 70-plus traveler plans to spend less in 2023, but accommodations and destinations may have something to do with people’s expectations that travel will look different than it did before COVID-19.

Travelers who are 70-plus say “they will stay with family and friends versus a hotel style of accommodations,” says Vicki Levy, senior research manager at AARP. “We also know that more of them are avoiding crowded destinations and more of them are traveling domestic only as compared to pre-pandemic. So they’re probably spending less because they’re not doing as much international travel as they previously were doing.”

Overall, travelers who expect to spend less in 2023 than in 2022 attribute it to taking less expensive trips, having less to spend and taking fewer trips. However, “25% of those 70-plus who are planning to spend less say that it’s because they’re using loyalty points or miles,” Levy says.

The survey found that the cost of travel emerged as the primary barrier to leisure trips in 2023, surpassing concerns about COVID, which were prominent the past two years. Fifty-two percent of travelers 50-plus cited cost. Twenty-seven percent cited financial fears due to inflation as an impediment to travel.

More travelers who are 50-plus (40 percent) say they are “not concerned” about the spread of COVID compared with last year (21 percent). Thirty-two percent of travelers took fewer trips than planned in 2022, citing COVID and cost of travel, 49 percent and 48 percent, respectively, as the top reasons.

“We know from previous research that travel is the number 1 aspiration” of 50-plus people, Levy says, “so it’s heartening to see that people are feeling comfortable and getting back to it. We obviously want them to do whatever is the most safe thing for them and their families. … We had expected that we were going to see inflation and high costs impacting 2023 travel plans, and that is exactly how it turned out.”

Florida is the top domestic destination in 2023, according to the survey. California and Las Vegas round out the top three. Internationally, Europe is the most planned destination, and Italy, Great Britain and France are the top European countries for the 50-plus traveler.

People 50 and older remain focused on domestic trips, 14 percent of which are intended to be family or multigenerational ones.

Levy notes that domestic road trips were a focus during the pandemic, and “now we’re seeing it again, but it’s because of money.”

Nicole Gill Council is a writer and editor of travel and diversity, equity and inclusion content for aarp.org. Previously, she was a digital planning manager and a news editor at USA Today and Gannett News Service, and a copy editor at the Los Angeles Times and Newsday.​

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