Driving Opportunity: Insights From Our Latest Road Trips Research

The four U.S. road trip “hot spots” are the Pacific, Mountain, Northeast and East South Central regions of the country, which together represent almost 60% of all road trips in the U.S.

In all of these regions, their representation among U.S. road trips is far higher than their overall share of U.S. leisure travel. In many communities in these regions (think Cody in Wyoming, Bar Harbor in Maine, or Cave City in Kentucky), they are a central and dominant part of tourism.

Road Trip Winners & Losers

Using Longwoods' huge research data set of U.S. traveler information and insights from over 250,000 trips by Americans each year, we assessed the shifts in road trip travel in the U.S. since before the pandemic—2019 to 2024. There were some major shifts over this five-year period, as well as some clear winners and losers amongst particular regions in the U.S.:

• Grew Their Share of U.S. Road Trips: East South Central, West South Central, Pacific, Mountain, East North Central, South Atlantic

• No Significant Change in Their Share of U.S. Road Trips: Middle Atlantic

• Lost Share of U.S. Road Trips: West North Central and New England

In the growth of their road trips sector, the East South Central (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee) and West South Central (Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma) regions of the U.S. stand out. Each saw their share of all U.S. road trips increase by over a quarter (25%) in the last five years. 

Understanding and Marketing to U.S. Road Trips Travelers

Our research highlights some critical characteristics of road trip travelers in the U.S.

They tend to be slightly younger, and they skewed more male, more affluent and better educated than the average U.S. traveler. More road trippers are families, including 4/10 who are traveling with children.

Put simply: U.S. road trip travelers also do more. They are more likely to experience a greater range of activities and attractions during their trip compared to almost any other type of U.S. leisure travelers.

For example, our research highlights elevated participation in a wide range of activities and attractions—all at far higher rates than the average U.S. leisure traveler:

• Sightseeing: 32% of U.S. road trippers (vs. 20% of all U.S. leisure travelers)
• Cultural/Art Attractions: 28% (vs. 18%)
• Historic Sites & Landmarks: 27% (vs. 13%)
• National/State Parks: 17% (vs. 8%)
• Agritourism: 17% (vs. 9%)
• Winery, Brewery, Distillery: 14% (vs. 8%)

To plan these activities and their trip overall, road trip travelers use a wide range of media sources. Compared to other types of travelers, road trippers rely more on information from accommodation businesses, official destination websites and AAA. Our research highlights these top 10 sources:

1. Hotel, Resort or Campground Information: 21%
2. Online Travel Agencies: 18%
3. Advice from Relatives or Friends: 16%
4. Social Media: 16%
5. Destination Websites (City, State): 15%
6. Travel Agent: 15%
7. Travel Company Website: 12%
8. Travel Guide: 10%
9. Short Term Rental Site: 11%
10. AAA - Auto Club: 10%

More First-Time & Recession-Proof Travelers

Two characteristics of road trip travelers make them particularly appealing to destinations—and to tourism businesses at this moment of economic uncertainty.

• Road trip travelers are also more likely to be new visitors to your destination. Almost 1/5th (17%) of road trip travelers are new to that destination, versus just 11% of all leisure travelers.
• Road trips tend to be a “recession-proof” part of the visitor economy—growing when the economic outlook is uncertain, as travelers substitute more expensive and complex travel for a road trip. 

Electric Vehicle Travel: The Value of EV Travel

Finally, despite changes in the political environment in Washington and parts of the U.S., electric vehicles (EVs) remain an important and growing part of the U.S. road trip landscape.

32% of U.S. travelers now report having undertaken an overnight road trip in an EV. EV travelers are even more attractive visitors—more affluent, better educated and more active than other road trip travelers or the leisure traveler overall.

But major concerns over charging availability in destinations is a major deterrent for EV travelers and a critical challenge for communities and the tourism industry to address.

The vast majority (84%) of EV travelers in our research expressed concern related to the accessibility and availability of charging stations while traveling.

For many, this can be a deal-breaker in considering where to travel. Hence, ongoing investment and support in growing charging infrastructure in visitor destinations remains a critical part of attracting this growing segment of the road trip travel market.

See our US Road Trips & EV Travel Research Summary and the detailed research slide sets here.

*The road trips research from Longwoods International comes from research collected in June and July 2025 with a sample of 1,000 U.S. travelers, and for the full year 2024 and prior years, from the Longwoods USA omnibus research study with a sample of 250,000 trips.