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Vice chair | National sector leader for transportation, hospitality, and services | Deloitte & Touche LLP | Principal
United States
Kate Ferrara serves as the vice chair and US transportation, hospitality, and services sector leader. She has more than 25 years of risk management consulting experience. Ferrara has held several industry roles, including the US consumer industry leader and the US retail and consumer products sector leader for the risk and financial advisory practice.
During her Deloitte career, she has coordinated teams and led projects, including internal audit, Sarbanes-Oxley 404 testing, IT security and controls design and implementation, and several security and privacy initiatives to assist clients with regulatory matters.
Vice chair | US transportation, hospitality, and services attest leader | Deloitte & Touche LLP | Partner
United States
Eileen Crowley leads Deloitte & Touche LLP’s US audit and assurance transportation, hospitality, and services practice. She has a history of serving large, complex multinational companies on Securities and Exchange Commission reporting matters, mergers and acquisitions, information technology, and capital transactions.
US hospitality leader | Deloitte Consulting LLP | Principal
United States
Matt serves as the US Hospitality Leader with a primary focus on Digital Product and Innovation. He has more than 20 years of experience leading cross disciplinary teams to identify, design and stand-up new businesses, digital products, loyalty programs and experiences. He is an expert in design thinking and concept development and applies it along the end-to-end journey, from sensing and scanning to inception, prototype, pilot, implementation, launch, and scale. He has also helped numerous clients organize for digital products and deploy digital capabilities.
US airlines leader | Deloitte Consulting LLP | Principal
United States
Matt Soderberg is a principal and leader of the finance operations improvement practice at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He focuses on large-scale finance transformation programs. As part of these transformations, Soderberg has helped clients develop their vision for finance, optimize finance processes and organizations, and build and track business cases for finance transformation programs.
Transportation, hospitality, and services research leader | Manager | Deloitte Services LP
United States
As Deloitte’s research manager for transportation, hospitality, and services, Maggie Rauch collaborates with firm leadership to design and execute research on the current state and future of the industry. She has a decade of experience as a travel industry subject matter expert and research team leader.
Transportation, hospitality, and services, Assistant research manager | Deloitte Support Services India Pvt. Ltd.
India
Upasana Naik is an assistant manager at Deloitte’s Consumer Industry Center. She works with leadership to conceptualize, design, and develop research projects and statistical analysis focused on the transportation, hospitality, and services industry.
This summer, sticker shock is sidelining some travelers, while others are determined to get away even if it means digging deep into their pockets. According to Deloitte’s survey of 4,003 Americans, fielded from April 2 to April 9, 2026, 45% of respondents are planning vacations (with stays in paid lodging), the lowest in the last six years (figure 1). General affordability is a major concern for non-travelers, but a growing number of those staying home specifically highlight the high cost of travel. Also compounding matters somewhat are creeping concerns about safety and trip disruptions.
Those still planning trips show a promising willingness to invest in great experiences regardless of rising prices. Planned trip frequency (figure 1) and length are similar to 2025, and intended budgets are up. These positive trends are somewhat driven by the makeup of the traveler pool. With more Americans at the lower end of the income spectrum saying they will stay home, those with income of $100,000 and above will account for 55% of the traveling public, up from 50% in 2025.
Still, several signals of spending are up across income levels. Those who decide to travel seem largely unwilling to make significant compromises to rein in budgets. More travelers say they plan to increase marquee trip budgets (24% versus 19% in 2025) and fewer plan to decrease them (11% versus 14% in 2025). The pattern holds for lower as well as higher earners.
One key to understanding the mindset of American travelers this summer is that the share of budget increasers who cite high prices and the share who say travel has become more important to them have both risen sharply. Travelers are resisting compromise and spending more to keep up with rising prices. That posture exists across income levels.
A significant pocket of opportunity might be found in high-income millennials (figure 2). More than 8 in 10 respondents in this group plan to travel, at about 1.2 times the frequency of others, and with 1.6 times the budget for their marquee trips. Connecting with this group increasingly requires a strong gen AI strategy, as 43% say they use it in their trip planning.
In a possible signal of uncertainty or price-wariness, travelers have made less progress booking their trips compared to 2025. Travelers in the $100,000 to $199,000 income group exhibit the biggest booking-progress gap (37% fully booked versus 45% in 2025). They may be experiencing the greatest conflict between their travel preferences and their ability to afford them.
If perceptions of high household costs persist beyond the summer season, travel demand could face ongoing challenges. A majority (51%) of Americans with income of less than $100,000 say travel spend is one of the first things they cut back on when expenses rise (figure 3). About a third of respondents with incomes between $100,000 and $199,000 say the same, and about a quarter of those with incomes of $200,000 and above.
Beyond the dip in overall travel incidence, there are few concerning signals for travel providers in the upcoming summer season. Travelers are not shying away from any particular types of lodging or showing resistance to upgrading their flights. Suppliers targeting lower-income levels could face some challenges, but they may be able to coax demand up with well-constructed deals.
Download the full survey findings
Vice chair | National sector leader for transportation, hospitality, and services | Deloitte & Touche LLP | Principal
United States
Kate Ferrara serves as the vice chair and US transportation, hospitality, and services sector leader. She has more than 25 years of risk management consulting experience. Ferrara has held several industry roles, including the US consumer industry leader and the US retail and consumer products sector leader for the risk and financial advisory practice.
During her Deloitte career, she has coordinated teams and led projects, including internal audit, Sarbanes-Oxley 404 testing, IT security and controls design and implementation, and several security and privacy initiatives to assist clients with regulatory matters.
Vice chair | US transportation, hospitality, and services attest leader | Deloitte & Touche LLP | Partner
United States
Eileen Crowley leads Deloitte & Touche LLP’s US audit and assurance transportation, hospitality, and services practice. She has a history of serving large, complex multinational companies on Securities and Exchange Commission reporting matters, mergers and acquisitions, information technology, and capital transactions.
US hospitality leader | Deloitte Consulting LLP | Principal
United States
Matt serves as the US Hospitality Leader with a primary focus on Digital Product and Innovation. He has more than 20 years of experience leading cross disciplinary teams to identify, design and stand-up new businesses, digital products, loyalty programs and experiences. He is an expert in design thinking and concept development and applies it along the end-to-end journey, from sensing and scanning to inception, prototype, pilot, implementation, launch, and scale. He has also helped numerous clients organize for digital products and deploy digital capabilities.
US airlines leader | Deloitte Consulting LLP | Principal
United States
Matt Soderberg is a principal and leader of the finance operations improvement practice at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He focuses on large-scale finance transformation programs. As part of these transformations, Soderberg has helped clients develop their vision for finance, optimize finance processes and organizations, and build and track business cases for finance transformation programs.
Transportation, hospitality, and services research leader | Manager | Deloitte Services LP
United States
As Deloitte’s research manager for transportation, hospitality, and services, Maggie Rauch collaborates with firm leadership to design and execute research on the current state and future of the industry. She has a decade of experience as a travel industry subject matter expert and research team leader.
Transportation, hospitality, and services, Assistant research manager | Deloitte Support Services India Pvt. Ltd.
India
Upasana Naik is an assistant manager at Deloitte’s Consumer Industry Center. She works with leadership to conceptualize, design, and develop research projects and statistical analysis focused on the transportation, hospitality, and services industry.
The authors would like to thank Sanjay Vadrevu for his contributions to this report.
Editorial (including production and copyediting): Rithu Thomas, Preetha Devan, and Anu Augustine
Design: Natalie Pfaff, Sofia Laviano, and Harry Wedel
Cover image by: Sofia Laviano; Adobe Stock, Getty Images
Knowledge services: Rohan Singh
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The 2025 Deloitte summer travel survey reveals that Americans intend to travel at a healthy clip, despite developments in the economy in early April
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Deloitte's latest survey results show that holiday travel intent is at its highest in recent years, but more high-income Americans are planning to make cuts amid rising financial pressure
Despite inflation-driven pricing pressure, Americans' intent to travel has remained high.
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