(NEXSTAR) – With President Joe Biden promising that there will be enough shots to vaccinate every American against COVID-19 by the end of May, many people are itching to start planning summer trips.
They’re not alone in this.
In a sign that the travel bug is biting many Americans, the travel booking app Hopper reports that domestic flight searches for the summertime surged by 58 percent between the end of February and early March.
The search volume, Hopper said, “was comparable to something we last saw in January 2020,” before the pandemic shut down much of the country.
The prospect of international travel is hot as well, though searches for international flights have yet to reach 2019 levels. Hopper said international searches for summer 2021 have increased 51 percent since Feb. 20.
Where will people go once they’re able to travel?
These are the hottest domestic destinations, per Hopper:
- Orlando
- Las Vegas
- Fort Myers, Florida
- Honolulu
- Tampa, Florida
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- Key West, Florida
- Miami
- Kahului, Hawaii
- Kalispell, Montana
There’s an obvious theme here: people are searching out warm weather locales with lots of outdoor activities.
While many airlines are currently offering deals to encourage travel, Hopper predicts prices to jump by 5 percent between April and May and 7 percent between May and June. Into the summer, the app predicts prices to increase 12 percent and “top out at about $257 for a round-trip domestic flight in June/July.”
