Road trips will lead the way for North American travellers as pandemic restrictions ease, according to a recent survey by AirportParkingReservations.com and ParkSleepFly.com. The May poll of more than 14,000 Canadian and American travellers reports that while most respondents (75 percent) are holding off on rebooking any previously cancelled plans, 57 percent said that if they were to travel in 2020, it would be domestically in the US and Canada.

Correspondingly, 43 percent of respondents said they were interested in taking a road trip in 2020, with 63 percent of those indicating a willingness to drive up to 500 kilometres for a vacation.

The survey coincides with an Abacus Data survey – as reported last Thursday in Travel Industry Today – detailing the rise of “RV curious” Canadians (one in three) and an 800 percent increase in bookings at Ottawa-based peer-to-peer recreational vehicle (RV) marketplace RVezy.com.

“Our customers are telling us that they would like to travel soon,” says Carlos Chilin, General Manager of AirportParkingReservations.com and ParkSleepFly.com. “They’ve indicated that a big factor for their decisions will be the health and safety protocols implemented to make them feel protected. Tourist locations in the (North America) have a big opportunity to capitalize on the pent-up demand that should come as travel increases.”