First there was Black Friday, then Cyber Monday.
Now deal-hungry consumers have a reason to shop online for a day longer. Travel Tuesday – the first Tuesday after the US Thanksgiving holiday – is aimed at those looking for discounts on flights, rather than flat-screen TVs.
Search interest for “Travel Tuesday” rose more than 500% from 2021 to 2023, according to a report published Thursday by McKinsey & Company.
Searches are highest among US and Canadian consumers, but interest is also growing in Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain, according to McKinsey.
Google Trends backs this up, showing searches for “Travel Tuesday” starting in November 2017, then declining during the pandemic, and rising sharply in 2022 and 2023, mostly in North America, Western Europe, and Australia.
“European travel companies can anticipate the possibility that Tuesday travel will become a growing phenomenon in their region,” the McKinsey report notes.
With the exception of Singapore, Travel Tuesday has not yet caught on in Asia, the report noted, perhaps due to the regional popularity of Singles' Day in China – a weeks-long sales period that peaks annually on November 11.
Interest in searching for “Travel Tuesday” on Google Trends since 2019.
Source: Google Trends (https://www.google.com/trends)
But this does not prevent Asian companies from participating in selling to reach global customers.
Christine Jennings Graf, director of sales and marketing at Bawah Reserve Eco-Resort in the Indonesian Riau Islands, said that her company launched its first “Travel Tuesday” promotion in 2023.
“We had an offer that was a choice: upgrade, discount, or one free ride,” she said. “It has generated good sales for us.”
Flights, hotels and cruises
The McKinsey report, titled “Travel Tuesday is Real — and Growing,” showed that hotel, airline and cruise bookings among American travelers rose on last year’s “Travel Tuesday,” which occurred on November 28, 2023.
Airline bookings jumped by more than 60% that day, and cruise bookings by more than 50%, compared to the two-week period before and after, according to the report.
Hotel bookings also jumped 28%, although they slightly exceeded bookings made the previous day, Cyber Monday, according to the report. It showed that searches for “Cyber Monday” are much larger than “Travel Tuesday,” but interest in the former is declining.
“Travel bookings made on Tuesday outpaced those made on Cyber Monday,” said Ryan Mann, a partner in McKinsey's Travel, Logistics and Infrastructure practice and one of the report's authors.
But Mann warns that Travel Tuesday may not do for the travel industry what Black Friday did for retail.
On both dates, he said, consumers are looking for the best deals. “But unlike some of the impulse purchases consumers make on Black Friday, travel reservations can require a little more planning.”
For those who are ready to book, you can find discounts on airline tickets, cruises and tour packages, with many hotels offering 20-30% off the best available rates. Travelers can check out Travel Tuesday deals from 2023 to get an idea of what to expect this year.
A slice of spending at the end of the year
In the face of rising travel costs and inflationary pressures, travelers say finding a good deal is a top priority.
A travel sale day could be a win for travelers and an opportunity for companies to boost revenue during a period when there is usually a lull in bookings, according to McKinsey. The report notes that late November and early December are often considered too late for winter bookings and too early for summer bookings.
It may also be a way to get a share of year-end holiday spending, which has long been dominated by material gifts.
More than half of Americans (58%) say they would rather spend their money on traveling than shopping, according to the 2024 Winter Travel Survey conducted by personal finance company WalletHub.
A 2024 global Amex Trendex survey of more than 13,000 adults who earn at least $50,000 a year found that about one in three respondents said they plan to “give a try” to a significant other or their children. The rate jumped even higher for friends, with nearly 70% saying they would rather give an experience or trip than a material gift, according to the poll.
The top experiences were entertainment (59%) and travel (54%), according to the Amex survey published in September.
