Inflation's toll on 2023 holiday plans–and how American travelers have changed

Mikhail Starodubov // Shutterstock Rounding out 2023, 1 in 3 American holiday travelers are worried about spreading their budgets too thin due to inflation or rising prices, according to Bankrate. The worries are well-founded. Americans face a triad of financial pressures between interest rates climbing to a 23-year-high, the return of student loan repayments, and core inflation remaining high–though thankfully, inflation has sharply decreased from mid-2022 when rates were at the highest they’d been in 40 years. Still, nearly half of Americans plan to travel for the 2023 end-of-year holiday season, according to a Deloitte holiday travel report. But their plans in 2023 may look different than other years. According to Bankrate, 77% percent say they are likely to change their winter holiday plans, citing inflation or rising prices that have remained inflated post-pandemic. CoPilot looked into how inflation and consumer attitudes throughout 2023 are impacting Americans’ holiday travel plans using reports from Deloitte and Bankrate, and other media sources. Reddit user yankinwaoz said they canceled vacation plans outright this year, taking precautions for a pricey 2024 while their income is expected to remain the same. “We only see our life getting more expensive. Our grocery bill is going up. Gasoline is over $6/gallon … I noticed today that my 401k dropped $60K in value overnight. I feel like I’m going backwards,” they wrote. “I can’t justify spending $4K on a vacation somewhere.” Vacationers may also still painfully remember end-of-year-holiday travel in 2022, when millions of Americans were stranded after about 17,000 flights were canceled due either to natural disasters like winter storms–or human-made fiascos–like when Southwest Airlines’ scheduling system crashed, fueling a federal investigation. Revenge travel has waned, but the spirit of exploration remains