More than double the amount of Americans plan to use sharing economy services for their travel plans this summer compared to 2015 due to an increase in familiarity and trust, according to the second annual Allianz Travel Insurance Sharing Economy Index released recently by Allianz Global Assistance USA.
The first year-on-year survey to track consumer confidence in the sharing economy market for travel planning, the analysis found that one in three Americans (36 percent) say they are likely to use sharing economy services such as AirBnB, HomeAway, Uber or Lyft during their summer vacation this year. This is up from last year when just 17 percent of Americans said they were likely to use these services.
Millennials continue to lead the sharing economy trend with 65 percent aged 18-34 saying they are likely to use these services (up 37 percentage points from 2015), compared to the 33 percent aged 35-54 (up 16 points) and the 14 percent aged 55 or over (up eight percent) who are likely to use sharing economy services. Americans with an annual income of $50,000 or more (38 percent) are more likely to use sharing economy services than those with an income less than $50,000 (32 percent).
The survey found that this growth is the result of expanded familiarity and trust in the services. American millennials continue to increase in familiarity with 86 percent saying they are familiar with the sharing economy services offered (up 28 percentage points from 2015), compared to the 67 percent aged 35-54 (up 14 points) and the 49 percent aged 55 or over (up 20 points).
America is also becoming more aware of the variety of sharing economy services available with Uber topping the list with 66 percent of Americans saying they are familiar with the service (up 27 points from 2015). AirBnB is up 16 points with 35 percent familiarity and Lyft rose 19 points to 34 percent familiarity. Additionally, HomeAway (18 percent; up eight points), GetAround (11 percent; up four points) and Feastly (10 percent; up six points) all experienced growth in familiarity.
