Summer vacation travel that is synonymous with travelling with families, also increasingly means travelling with pets.
Around half of pet owners surveyed by PetRelocation.com, a pet travel and pet transportation service provider, will be travelling with their pets this summer. In its third annual Summer Pet Travel Survey the company said that 47 percent of pet owners would be going on holiday with their pets this summer, while another 40 percent have plans to travel with their pets in 2013.
Around 25 percent of people that were questioned will be travelling with their cats, while 85 percent of the dog owners will be travelling with their family canines. In comparison, around 58 percent of pet owners had travelled with dogs – and 22 percent with cats – in 2011.
While pet owners are enthusiastic about travelling with their animals, there is an apparent lack of pet-friendly hotels at most travel destinations, say the people surveyed. Around 40 percent of respondents said that there are not sufficient numbers of pet-friendly hotels to decide from, while 17 percent of the respondents felt that hotel fees and an even greater shortage of pet-friendly airlines are major deterrents to travelling with pets.
Although 12 percent of pet owners surveyed felt airline pet fees are too high, this is considerably lower than the figure of 18 percent in 2011.
Safety factors seem to weigh the concerns of pet owners while planning a vacation with pets, as stated by around 60 percent of the respondents. Around 25 percent have stated convenience as top priority while travelling with pets, and price is the major concern with 15 percent of those surveyed.
