Minorities Traveling More Than Ever: Survey

Jet, Jan 29, 2001

Minorities have been on the go in record numbers, according to a recent survey.

A new report on minority travelers found a significant increase in travel over the past three years by minority Americans, including Black, Hispanic and Asian travelers.

The survey, released by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), found that Black travel volume increased 16 percent from 1997 to 1999, up from 60.1 million to 69.6 million person-trips.

Shopping was found to be the top leisure travel activity for Blacks.

Blacks, it also was learned, are more likely to go on a group tour or attend cultural events or festivities.

Hispanic travel volume was up 11 percent, increasing from 63.9 million to 71.2 million person-trips. And, Asian travel volume increased seven percent, up from 28.5 million to 30.4 million person-trips.

The figures are included in a new report called The Minority Traveler, which is based on a survey of 240,000 American households conducted in 1999.

It was reported that the increases in both Black and Hispanic travel were also much higher than the one percent growth of U.S. travelers overall.

The survey found that pleasure travel-as is true for all U.S. resident travelers-is the most common form of travel for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Most of these pleasure trips are to visit friends or relatives.

For all minority groups, entertainment is the second most common reason for taking pleasure trips.

All three groups are more likely than all U.S. travelers to go participate in nightlife activities and gambling while traveling.