By Dan Burns

(Reuters) – Americans are eager for a break after more than a decade of a restricted pandemic. A record number of Americans now plan to leave the United States in the coming six months.

A survey by the Conference Board on Tuesday revealed that nearly 48% of Americans plan to take a vacation within the next six months. It is the highest rate of positive responses to the every other month question in the Economic Research Group’s benchmark Consumer Confidence Survey since February 2020. This was the month that the coronavirus caused a temporary but serious recession.

Coronavirus lockdowns took a toll on leisure and travel. Although they improved notably earlier this year due to COVID-19 vaccines, the virus’s spread through the country was slowing down over the summer and fall. The Delta variant of the disease swept across the country in particular the South region with lower vaccination rates. These regions are often popular vacation spots.

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Lynn Franco, the Conference Board senior director for economic indicators said that the rise in this month’s number was “a result of consumers’ continuing resurgence of willingness to travel and make purchases on-site services.”

This was because consumer confidence unexpectedly rose in October. It snapped a three-month slump that had been caused mainly by summer’s Delta wave, and concerns about rising inflation.

Although most Americans are planning a trip to the United States by car, 16.8% of respondents said that they plan on traveling to another country in the next four months. This is nearly double the 8.4% average for the series dating back to 1970s, which was just below 15%.

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With fewer people planning to travel by air, the surge in foreign travel plans may in part reflect the pending relaxation of restrictions at the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-open-border-with-canada-starting-early-november-buffalo-news-2021-10-13, the two countries most easily reached by motor vehicle from the United States.

Actually, almost 35% of people planning to take a trip of any type say they’ll travel by vehicle. It is also the fourth largest percentage since 1978 when the Conference Board introduced the vacation-plans supplement.

Only 19.6% of those who plan on traveling will fly, which is the lowest figure since February’s Conference Board survey. It is three percentage points higher than the previous decade’s average and 10 percent lower than the August 2019 record, which was greater than 30.

According to the most recent Transportation Security Administration data, 5.8 Million passengers scanned through airport security in the weekend. This is more than twice the number from one year ago but only about 85% of those volumes for the same period in 2019.

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