When Ann Aluise’s childhood friends invited her to spend Christmas in Louisiana with them, she had to refuse.
“I’m on a fixed budget,” Aluise, of Gambrills, said. “I just told [them] the truth that I … can’t really afford it.”
So the family collectively raised $300 to buy her airplane ticket, gifting her the first Christmas celebration in a long time.
Although a record number of people are planning on traveling this holiday season, perceived financial instability is driving them to spend less, a national survey showed.
Respondents who believe they’re doing financially better this year compared to last year dropped by four percentage points to 33% in 2025, according to a Deloitte Holiday Travel survey.
Despite the decrease, over half of the respondents said they planned to travel this winter, the highest percentage since 2021.
Respondents who reduced their travel budgets this year said that they are trying to save money in multiple ways, like flying domestic instead of international and staying at a less preferred location.
Meghan Bowyer, of Frederick, is driving 16 hours to Kansas City, Kansas, with her husband to visit family for Christmas this year.
“Things are just getting more expensive,” she said. “We’re staying with my mom, so we don’t have a hotel cost.”
Although Bowyer considered staying at a hotel, she decided against it to reduce costs.
Between 2025 and 2024, the biggest increases in budget cuts were seen in decisions to drive instead of fly and spending less at their destination, according to the survey.
Aluise said she prefers traveling domestic and by car, that way she can “bring down the price of [the trip] and still make it exciting.”
Bowyer and Aluise both said they plan on doing inexpensive activities during their trips this year.
“We’re just basically doing a lot of things we know are free or that we can split costs with people,” Bowyer said, like visiting a free art museum or having a family board game night.
The average travel budget dropped by $960 this year, the Deloitte survey showed.
Bowyer said that her travel budgets are usually flexible, but with the holidays coming up and gift buying, “it’s just an expensive time of year.”
While Bowyer usually plans on one big trip a year, she and her husband have been traveling closer to home in recent years due to costs.
The most common places for flights last winter holiday season were in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Massachusetts, according to a Row Zero database, a spreadsheet software company. The dataset compiled domestic flight data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The less popular destinations varied more, but Colorado, Mississippi and Michigan were among the least traveled to states.
Aluise is feeling thankful for the opportunity to spend the holidays with her loved ones this year since she doesn’t have a lot of family in Maryland anymore.
“The last two or three years for Christmas specifically, and even Thanksgiving, I’ve kind of been winging it … and I’ve been lucky enough to be invited,” she said. “It’s tough around the holidays, so I’m so happy to go and be surrounded by them.”
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