The War in Iran Has Americans Rethinking Their Summer Travel Plans

Georgette Lang had planned three international trips this year to celebrate her 60th birthday and her daughter's college graduation, but in the weeks since the United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28, she postponed all three, resulting in a loss of nearly $16,000. It didn't feel "safe or appropriate to be gallivanting around the world as an American after the government started a war," said Ms. Lang, 59, an interior designer from Philadelphia. She had planned to visit Italy, Switzerland, France and Japan over the summer and fall. "It's a gut-wrenching punch financially, but I didn't choose flexible booking options because I was sure we would go," she said. Instead, Ms. Lang plans to stay close to her home over the summer and celebrate her birthday with family in Cape May, N.J. "It feels like the pandemic all over again, when you have a big urge to travel, but you know in your gut that the right thing to do is to stay put," she said. Faced with economic uncertainty, rising airfares and geopolitical instability that has prompted the State Department to issue a global travel warning, many Americans are rethinking their summer travel plans, either changing destinations or canceling their trips entirely. An April poll, by the market research firm YouGov and the travel rewards website The Points Guy, found that 24 percent of Americans had reconsidered travel because of recent global events. Among the respondents, 15 percent said they were avoiding some destinations because of safety concerns, while 20 percent said they were avoiding international travel altogether. Outbound travel from the United States fell 2.1 percent in March and continued to drop in April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.