If anyone was worried that the travel industry wouldn’t come back after the pandemic lockdowns, you can put your mind at ease.

The Wall Street Journal shared this chart a couple of weeks ago showing the boom in European trips by Americans.

As you can see, travel has reached new highs the last three years running. It reports that 2026 travel continues to be strong, too. The trend is driven by our strong economy – which in turn amplified by a strong dollar relative to the Euro ($1 buys 0.86€ yesterday).

We’re in Europe ourselves right now. Today is our last day in Reykjavik, Iceland. Tomorrow we’ll fly to Dublin, Ireland. At the same time, our son and his girlfriend are on a two-week Grand Tour through Asia.

The WSJ noted that Americans used to be known as a group that didn’t travel much. In 1990, only 5% of Americans held a passport. Now, over 50% do.

I noticed that our passports are good for another 7 years. Hopefully that will be enough time to reach my goal of 50 foreign countries. I adopted that goal after reaching all 50 US States. It’s a great quest for a retired couple.

Link: Counting Countries: How Many?

Are you traveling more than in the past? Do you have a “travel quest”?

Image: ChatGPT