The reason people get in their cars has changed. Speaking at the 2021 HSMAI Marketing Strategy Conference, Waze's director and head of sales, Andrew Kandel, noted that more people are driving today than even pre-pandemic, but their patterns are different.

"Commutes are way down, and leisure travel and weekend driving is way up," he said during the "Drive Leisure Demand and Engage the Leisure Traveler" session, noting he believes that trend will "hold in the near term."

At the same time, data shows people are dreaming more about travel than ever before, said Pinterest's global head of strategy and marketing, Ashish Arya.

"On our platform, we've seen travel searches increase this year by over 20%," he said. "We've seen a decrease in searches that have a city, state or country within them."

He said this represents a huge opportunity for travel marketers, as fewer people are looking to get on the road with a final destination or specific travel brands in mind.

"People are more undecided with their travel than they ever have been," Arya said. "They're more open-minded to trying something new, going somewhere new or having a new experience."

Read the full article at HotelNewsNow (part of CoStar)