2025 U.S. Experiences Traveler Outlook: Key Insights for Outdoor Operators from Arival's Survey

As we continue into 2025, the latest U.S. Experiences Traveler Outlook from Arival offers valuable insights into American travelers' shifting behaviors, spending habits, and travel intentions. Understanding these trends is essential for outfitters, tour operators, and adventure businesses to stay competitive in an increasingly cautious market.

Table of Contents

1. Inflation Impact
2. Experience Spending Slows
3. Interest-Based Experiences
4. Experiences in Destination Choice
5. Advance Planning
6. The 2025 Travel Outlook

1. Fewer, Shorter Trips as Inflation Bites

Travelers are taking fewer and shorter trips than in pre-pandemic years. While trip lengths peaked in 2023 (averaging nearly eight days), they dropped to 7.1 days in 2024. Additionally, only 27% of travelers took four or more trips in 2024, down from 40% in 2019.

What This Means for Operators: With fewer opportunities to engage travelers, businesses must optimize their offerings, making experiences more enticing and convenient for shorter trips.

2. Experience Spending Slows as Costs Rise

While travelers spent more per trip in 2024 due to inflation, they cut back on experiences. The number of tours, attractions, and activities booked per trip declined, reflecting budget-conscious behavior.

Key Data Points:

1. The average trip spend rose to $3,950 in 2024 (up from $3,777 in 2023), but experience-related spending fell.
2. Engagement with visitor attractions hit a low, with travelers cutting at least one attraction from their itinerary.
3. More travelers stayed domestic (63% in 2024 vs. 55% in 2023).

Takeaway: Offering bundled experiences or value-driven packages can help combat cost concerns while increasing bookings.

Flybook's reservation platform offers an innovative approach to bundling and packages. Check out our feature releases related to packaging and bundling here.

3. Growth in Interest-Based Experiences

Travelers are prioritizing interest-based experiences, with specific categories seeing rising demand. Top-growing experience types include:

1. Culinary experiences
2. Wellness-focused activities (spa, yoga, retreats)
3. Festivals and sporting events
4. Experiences with locals (cultural immersion)
5. Thematic tours (history, ghost tours, niche topics)

For Operators: If you haven’t already incorporated food, wellness, or unique cultural elements into your offerings, now is the time to consider how to capitalize on these trends.

4. Experiences Play a Bigger Role in Destination Choice

For many travelers, experiences are a key factor in choosing where to go—especially among younger demographics:

1. 65% of travelers say experiences significantly influence destination decisions.
2. Those aged 18-54 prioritize activities, food, and attractions when picking a destination.

Action Step: Ensure your marketing emphasizes the uniqueness of your experiences and how they enhance a trip rather than just focusing on the location. This is especially important if you are an operator located around a destination that is easy to fallback on, like a national park or monument.

5. The Shift Toward Advance Planning

While older travelers still book last-minute experiences, younger travelers (18-34) book activities earlier in their trip-planning process. This signals a shift toward more pre-trip research and online bookings.

What to Do:

1. Strengthen your SEO and digital marketing to reach travelers in the research phase.
2. Ensure a seamless online booking process to capture early planners.

Check out our latest blog post for detailed guidance on enhancing your SEO and digital marketing to connect with travelers during their research phase.

The 2025 Travel Outlook: A Competitive Landscape

With economic uncertainty persisting, 2025 is shaping up to be a competitive year for travel operators. Market growth is slowing, and businesses must compete on value, quality, and differentiation to attract bookings.

Strategies for Success:

1. Lean into niche experiences that appeal to specific traveler interests.
2. Emphasize affordability by offering flexible pricing, add-ons, and packages.
3. Leverage digital marketing to reach younger, early-planning travelers.
4. Enhance customer experience to increase word-of-mouth referrals and repeat visitors.

Conclusion

The days of post-pandemic “revenge travel” are over, and travelers are now more selective with their time and money. By understanding these trends, operators can refine their offerings, adjust their marketing strategies, and position themselves for success in 2025.

Looking to Manage More and Grow? The Flybook Reservation Software Can Help.