Travel Mug Podcast
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Travel Mug Podcast
Making Travel a Financial Priority in 2025 and Beyond
Thanks to a Flight Centre survey, we have insights into how folks are affording travel and making it a financial priority in 2025. Some are saving more, and some are cutting expenses. Steal their ideas to help save for your next trip!
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We are travel enthusiasts who do not claim to be professionals! Instead, we are two Halifax, NS natives with travel blogs who somehow found one another on the internet, and now, we have a podcast!!
Join us every week as we talk about our favourite destinations, travel tips, travel fails, and all things travel!
We have a big passion for travelling and talking about travel, so we hope you will listen and join the conversation.
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Disclaimer: All episodes are based on our opinions and experiences. Always do your research and make travel plans based on your budget and comfort levels.
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Travel Mug Podcast. I am Meggan. I am joined of course, as always because I simply couldn't do it without her., With Jenn, how are you today darling? I. I am doing well. How about you? Wonderful. Same, same things are good. Well, we recently heard from the folks at Flight Center. They reach out very generously every now and then to share some travel info, and they shared a very interesting survey that they helped conduct. And we wanted to take some time and dive a bit deeper because for a lot of us when it comes to travel top of mind is always cost. Now, the survey covers different generations above the age of 18, of course, which includes the generations of silent, boomers, gen X, millennials, and Gen Z across a variety of regions. So Canada, the US. The uk I have to mention that they excluded Northern Ireland, um, New Zealand, Australia, I don't know, , in South Africa, and it's from January of 25. So just this year they asked this group of over just over 6,000 folks about their travel intentions for 2025 with male and female being about sort of a 50 50 mix from all regions. For the generational data, the silent generation, of course, at this point makes up about 2%, so understandably, um, but otherwise the numbers are fairly similar. With millennials having the most participants around 32%. What generation are you? I am a millennial. Yeah. little heart. I know. Yeah. I'm a Gen X, the drinkers from the hose and the comer home at night from the street nights generation. Um, so let's dive into the main themes of the survey and some interesting results. Let's do it. Alright, so first up is. Has there been, will there be change in budget from 2024 travel to 2025 travel? Um, I wanna mention that as per the survey over two in five travel intenders, which is what they called people in this survey as they do intend to travel in 2025. So they called them. Travel intenders across the markets are planning to budget more for travel in 2025 compared to 2024, including one in five who say they plan to budget significantly more, which is about more than 20% compared to 24 while nearly two in five, plan to budget about the same and one in 10, plan to budget less. So some key findings from the survey for this section where younger people are budgeting more than older folks in 2025 and older folks are budgeting about the same as they did in 2024. South Africans are budgeting more. Canadians and Brits are about the same, and down under they are budgeting less. So I think this is kind of interesting because year over year a lot of prices go up, especially uh, lately. So budgeting more might actually just get you the same, sadly, um, as what you got last year. Older folks also likely have more stability in knowing what they actually have to spend, um, more fixed budgets, while younger folks likely are still working and maybe their wages have gone up over the last year, so they therefore intend to spend more. So personally this is not a flex at all. It's just literally the truth. We don't really budget. We just save money, and then we spend it as we book travel. And if we go over what we have in our travel savings, we chip in. So I can't really say for me personally, this one. Yes, we have X, Y, Z budget. Now what about you, Jenn? Like year to year, is there a difference? How do you budget that kind of thing. Yeah, like it's pretty similar to you. We save, we save every paycheck for travel or every two weeks or so. And that amount that we're saving has not changed in the past year and so far this year, as listeners will know if you're here on the regular, um, we've been doing travel kind of a little bit on the cheaper end. You know, I went up north and I was staying with my friends, so obviously that's not as expensive. And then we've been staying in Canada as well, so we don't have the exchange rate to worry about. We are thinking about booking a trip for February, 2026. And it was just interesting 'cause I kind of gave my wishlist and a budget to the travel agent we were talking to and she said, you know, usually this wishlist with this budget wouldn't be a problem, but prices are up. I was like that, you know. Interesting. That's for February, 2026. So I think it's safe to say that going forward we are gonna have to spend more for the same experiences. And interestingly though, Disney has actually decreased their ticket prices for 2026, very slightly, and not for all of the parks, but it is just interesting, uh, data to have. It is. Keep that in your back pocket. There could be, I mean, several reasons, but it is interesting to note for sure. Yeah. I think it's one of those things like if, if you probably have to spend more for the same, and I think that that's, I think that's a sad footnote. it is. Yeah. Alright, so moving on to number two in terms of what they chatted with folks about. So next, , we have intended travel spend for 2025 and they did cover this by region. And honestly, on average, most people's budget range from seven to $8,000. In most regions except Australia and New Zealand, they're coming in above eight K. Mm-hmm. and South Africa is about the lowest, uh, nearly equivalent of 4,000 Canadian they intend to spend. Mm-hmm. because we are Canadian, we're gonna share a bit more drilled down on Canadian data. So one in five canadian travelers intended, uh, travel intends. You know what that is good. That's interesting for my brain. Travel Intenders intend, uh, they intend to spend $10,000 or more on travel in 2025 on average spending 7,200 ish., Now men, interestingly in the survey for Canadian men are more likely than women to say they intend to spend 10,000 or more on travel in 2025. Maybe their wives had left the room. I don't really know what happened there. Um, and that's 24% of men compared to 15% of women, , are also intending to spend a higher amount on average. So , 8,000 ish compared to about 6,400, for women. So it's kind of interesting split there between men and women as well. I feel year to year people, , if they travel regularly, they have their trips planned out of somewhat of a general idea so they know how much they intend to travel and how much they likely intend to spend, if we aren't doing a big Europe trip as an example, we of course wouldn't intend to spend as much as if we were doing a Europe extravaganza for two weeks. So I would have to think that this plays a factor in the intended spend. Like sometimes people go on surprise trips, I'm sure, but that's probably not the regular. What's your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, you know, for us it depends on the year and I think 2025 we're gonna come in way under $10,000, but we actually have quite a few plans for 2026 that I think will put us over $10,000, which is actually kind of wild to say out loud, but I think that when you save the way that we do, which is regularly, and not for a specific trip, but just sort of for travel in general, it makes sense to kind of have a quieter year before you have a bigger year of travel. It just sort of helps like balance all of that out. But yeah, I think, I think the men spending more is interesting or intending to spend more is interesting. is that, and, and, and no dissing at all. But is it like bravado? Do they wanna be like, yeah, I'm gonna spend more. And maybe they're thinking they'll treat their ladies or their partners, whatever the case might be. Like who knows what the mindset is there? And maybe women are just a little bit more like trying to be conservative in the survey. It, it is very interesting. Who knows what the reasoning is, but it's very interesting and I, I guess if I asked Peter in a separate room and then me, I mean, Uh, yeah, a hundred, a hundred percent. I think, like I handle a lot of, uh, the, the kind of day-to-day finances in our house, and I think that Ryan wouldn't have as much of an idea of how much we spend on travel as I right. I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting. No, no, for sure. And you're exactly right. Like if you're having a big year next year, you're like, okay, well maybe we'll just take it a little bit more local this year or a little bit easier for us. It's a little bit more unpredictable and we do save weekly. So we, we have, you know, those things stored away. But of course each year it pretty much gets depleted. Now I have to say what the pandemic did. We had a nice kitty while the pandemic was roaring. We're like, we are. We're gonna have quite a trip when this is over. Yeah. Yeah. That similar thing happened to Yeah, it was, it, it was nice. I, I barely remember that saved money, but I'm sure it was lovely it was so nice to see it there. for, for a short time. So what's up next? All right so next up, this is very interesting. So what are people foregoing in order to afford travel in 2025? Across the markets, over half of travel intenders Say that they have skipped paying for an expense in favor of funding travel, most commonly shopping for non-essential or luxury goods, dining out and subscriptions. Moreover, 4% of travel and tenders What? Because I can't believe this, we haven't even got there. And this fact, no, this fact shocked me. was like, why are you shaking your head at me? What have I done wrong? 4% of travel intenders respectfully have skipped paying their mortgage or rent and or car loan repayments in order to fund travel. Okay, so Canadians specifically for, , us canucks to make some extra room in the budget. Canadians are cutting back on extras. So 38% of Canadian respondents said that they were cutting back on clothing, footwear and luxury items. 34% of Canadians said they were cutting back on eating out, and 18% are cutting back on subscriptions like streaming services. then some people are making some questionable or tougher cutbacks. On, uh, things, 10% said they were cutting back on groceries, 8% this said they were cutting back on credit card payments. 6% said they were cutting back on gas. 6% said they were cutting back on utility bills and 4% said they were cutting back on their mortgage or rent. Am I So, so are you foregoing power? I don't know. I don't know. So findings of note from the survey, women are more likely than men to say that they have skipped shopping for non-essential or luxury goods. So 40% of women versus 31% of men. But I just have to throw in here that like, thanks to the patriarchy, more of women's spending is classified as non-essential. So that's annoying, but. Apparently. Um, and then another, finding that we found interesting. Younger travelers are more likely to skip an expense in favor of funding travel. I think this makes sense because typically younger people have less money in the bank and so they And less fear. and maybe, yeah. They're like, you know what? I'm born in a crazy time. Let's see what happens. You know what the world could end, but also do you wanna keep working when you're 85? No. So please save for retirement and pay your mortgage or your rent. yeah, like really, really, please don't skip mortgage payments or loan payments to travel. I get wanting to travel. I have to come to you as a personal finance blogger, I truly cannot in good conscience, like let you harm your finances by doing that. And I think cutting back on extras is a really good place to start if you are really wanting to travel more. I think a lot of us are feeling the pinch in this current economy and things are definitely more expensive and the world feels uncertain and like I get, you're like Yolo, like let's go. also please pay your mortgage. So anyway you can save a little bit more is great. But yeah, I think for us personally, we've just had a low travel year and we've been like, you know, we own a house doing some home renovations and gearing up for 2026 travel, and I think that Meggan and I like. I think we can both admit that we do come from a place of, of privilege here too, that we can afford travel and um, also we both have chosen, you know, life situations that allow us to save more than for travel than some other folks might be able to. But What are your, what are your thoughts here, Meggan? I think you're right. And I mean, everybody has their own situations and this just happens to be ours. And I, I recognize that as well, and I couldn't agree more like do not, not pay for things such as your home or your vehicle or your utilities. I, I mean, the utilities almost shocks me as much as the mortgage of the rent. And that is to say, unless you've been given some terrible diagnosis. And then live. Live your, live your lives. Otherwise, please play it smart with that. Um, and I agree if you want to travel and you're able to give up some extras in your everyday life that are, you know, when you're buying them, you don't need them to start with, go that route. We're definitely all feeling the pinch, so it will come down at the end of the day for you, me and everybody listening to our own personal priorities. Yeah, for sure. All right, so how are people adapting their plans in 2025 to make travel more affordable? So over eight in 10 travel intenders across the markets are looking to adapt their travel plans in 2025 to make it more affordable, most commonly by booking flights and accommodations well in advance. We love it. And, uh, when they're on sale, we also love that too. And then also traveling outside of peak season. So key findings that we thought were interesting. Gen Z is more Gen Z, gen Z. Whatever way you wanna say it is more likely to say that they are adapting travel plans to make travel more affordable by staying in budget accommodations and booking with budget airlines. Again, this makes sense to me because they have less money to work with in general, and baby boomers are most likely to say that they are traveling outside of peak season. makes sense to me because they're probably retired so they're not kind of having Exactly, yeah. They're not having to work around like school schedules or work schedules, et cetera. So I boldly declared at the beginning of 2025 that it was going to be the year of the travel deal for me. And, So funny. that has led to me not leaving the country. So. The irony of the fact that it's led to the opposite is not lost on me. So I'm saving money. Um, but. It's definitely more affordable for you. I. Right. I, I, not what I intended, but that's what I put out to the universe and the universe delivered. So like searching for sales and traveling outside of peak season is, you know, always a great way to save some money. And this goes back, I. You know, Meggan, way back to our first or second episode, you know, travel does not have to be this huge international vacation. It can be a road trip, couple hours from home, or even a staycation close to home. And yeah, that's kind of where we're at for 2025, even though that's not what I expected this year. Well that is life. Sometimes it dishes up the unexpected and that's okay. And that is okay. And you're right. Vacation can mean a lot of different things. It doesn't have to mean you're going to Europe or coming from Europe to North America for two weeks. Yeah. Um, we most generally book very early. Big or small trips. One for savings of course. And secondly, to get the good stuff, I have huge fomo. I, I, I can't, I can't help it. So I do want to get the places I would like to stay. I mean, who knows what I'm missing out on that's not available, but I wanna get the good stuff of what's left. A lot of people are booking early now they've caught on, so you gotta be in the game early to get the kind of flights and accommodations and car rentals. You want, or even just the great weekend getaway spots. I've said this before, but in the winter when we're bored in February, we book stuff for July because we know that's how we secure the kind of places we wanna stay. And yeah, we definitely do all of the things including travel in shoulder season. Not having kids, uh, really does help with that because we don't have to worry about them being in school and taking them out of school, which again, is just a life choice. So shoulder season, is, is so much better in, in terms of a little bit less busy, a little bit bit less expensive, Yeah, and the other thing. Is, you know where you and I live, there are like two and a half months of good weather and I don't wanna leave during those two and a right? weather. I wanna enjoy it here and leave when it's not good. No, you're exactly right. We like, we wait all year for this blink of an eye summer and we really do want to enjoy it. For sure. No, that's a great point. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So to finish up the episode, Meggan, let's share a couple of tips for saving for travel. Yeah, so I wanna speak of it a couple for sure. We've sort of already alluded to this and we've talked about it at several different times, but it never hurts to bring it back up, and that is setting up a travel spend bank account and have money go into that account automatically.. Do not have it attached to your debit card so that you cannot access it on impulse when you're out and about. It will take self-discipline to not go onto your online banking, make a wee transfer. I'm not going on a trip next week. What does it matter? But if you truly wanna travel, it will matter at some point. So that's definitely a tip. As the year ends and you are looking forward to a new year, understand what you might want to do the following year. How much that might cost you, and then plan accordingly as much as possible. As you just mentioned, Jenn, life comes at you fast. Things can change. So if you over budget, I mean, you'll just have some money left over, so that's not a bad thing either. for sure. Yeah. So on the same similar note, do not plan for trips that are way beyond your budget. I mean, we all want these luxurious vacations. Trust me. I am currently looking at places to go in February or places to stay more specifically, and I have been tempted at some places that are way outside my budget and I just have to reel myself back in here because it can get outta control Yeah. and you know, you, we all have other things in our life that we need to pay for. Please. Please. This is the third, fourth, fifth time we're gonna say this. Please do not skip paying for your place to live or your car in order to fund travel. Um, please Just please. anything, if you take anything from this episode., And lastly, uh, don't forget to account for all of the costs of travel, not just like flights and hotels, parking or public transportation, baggage fees, souvenirs, snacks, and tips. Like all of those things add up. So it is important just to think about those as well. You are exactly right. And also gas, if you're renting a car, can be very costly depending on where you are. And if you are going somewhere for a bit longer period of time and you're going to be making meals as compared to eating out all the time, yes, you'll save money that way. But groceries, depending on where you're going, could also be costly. So really just think of everything you could, you know, have to. Eat, drink, sleep, get there, whatever the case might be, and really take account for all of that. Great point. Yeah. All right. Well that is it for this episode. We hope this helps you budget for whatever the rest of 2025 and 2026 travels are in store for you. This feels like a good time to mention that I have a personal finance and travel blog., You can find that at will save for travel.com. Also, you can find us on our website Travel Mug Podcast. Dot com and we'll share some travel budget tips over on social media at Travel Mug Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a five star review or supporting the show through buy Me a Coffee. And until next time. Bye everyone. Bye everyone.
