Are you ready to travel again? This may not apply to you – you may already have been traveling in 2022. If so, you are part of the reason this chart looks the way it does:

As it turned out, international tourist arrivals more than doubled compared to the previous two years. According to UNWTO estimates, international tourist arrivals could reach 80 to 95 percent of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, depending on how quickly travel bounces back across Asia.

One of the most important indicators of travel trends relates to the number of seats that airlines are making available for air travel. While it didn’t match the 2019 level, 2022 air travel rapidly approached that level and far surpassed 2020 and 2021 levels.

Where will you go next?

If you’ve been thinking about a trip to Paris or London, you aren’t alone. More people are getting comfortable putting their toes in the water. I’ve received several mailings for European river cruises. There are great deals on some of these and they aren’t using ships that are nearly as massive as the ones in the Caribbean. You might want to look these over.

Or you may not be ready to travel overseas. If that’s the case, you might want to consider North American travel. If you’ve never travelled in Canada, it’s a great place to visit during the summer. That holds true from the East to the West Coast. Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are gorgeous areas on the East Coast. There are towns that appear to have been dropped straight out of Europe. Yet, you’re not dealing with long travel or large time zone differences.

Montreal and Quebec City provide a blend of the modern and old. You can even do a little whale watching if you go far enough east.

On the west coast, Vancouver and Victoria have their own unique charm. Victoria has beautiful gardens and Vancouver has great history and yet a modern city.

Within the US, what are the cities, landmarks and National Parks that you’ve never visited? There are so many interesting places in our country. We have friends from France who lived in Little Rock for ten years. They drove all over this country and put us to shame, seeing so many places we have never visited. It’s easy to take for granted what’s in your own back yard!

If you haven’t planned your summer vacation yet, think about travel. Start where you’re comfortable but consider visiting some place that has meaning to you or gets you away from our heat in July or August!

Rick Adkins, CFP®, ChFC, MBA

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