We know your pets have been drooling with anticipation to see the results of our 2019 pet travel trends survey. And you might be interested, too! We sent this year’s survey out to our community via email (congrats to the Amazon gift card winners!) and received almost 2,000 responses from pet owners around the world.
Here’s the breakdown of where our survey respondents are in the world:
The majority of respondents were dog people, and we heard from lots of cat lovers, too!
Shout-out to those 15 guinea pig owners. We see you!
These survey results help us continuously improve our pet relocation services to meet your preferences and needs. We also just think it’s fascinating to know how pets and their owners are traveling the world! And we’ve got lots of great work ahead of us because people are willing to go the distance with their pets. 41% of our survey respondents plan to travel more than 1,000 miles with their pets in the coming year!
Here are the top takeaways from the 2019 Pet Travel Trends survey:
Just as people have a wide range of spending habits for themselves, there’s no set amount of money that people are spending on their pets. This is partly because some people have one pet and some have a dozen (!) but even segmented by the number of pets our respondents own, there’s still quite a range.
The majority of pet owners (68%) are spending $1,999 or less annually on their pets. Of these expenses, veterinary care and medical costs are by far the most common:
A major change we’ve seen in just the last year or so is the prevalence of subscriptions for pet products, including Amazon Subscribe & Save and Chewy’s subscription service. Nearly one-third of pet owners are participating in a subscription service, ensuring their furry friends never go without and they never have to make an emergency pet food run again!
Of course, our survey respondents are almost entirely people who have used our services or are thinking about it, so we can’t say this is true of everyone. But of those surveyed, 72% were willing to cover the full cost of moving their pets for a great job opportunity.
Still, 44% of respondents expect an employer to help or fully cover the cost of moving their pets abroad with them. Employers, it looks like you might need to consider a budget for pet relocation, or at least encourage new hires to use part of their general moving bonus for their pets. Because let’s be real—if they can’t afford to bring their best friends along, they’ll decline the offer.
Pet owners want to be with their pets. As much as possible! Even in places we never would have imagined five or ten years ago. 79% of pet owners are more likely to support a pet-friendly business (e.g. a restaurant with a pet-friendly patio or a hotel that allows pets to stay).
Business owners, take note! Pet lovers are using websites like BringFido to decide where they go, where they stop, and where they stay. And more pet-friendly amenities and accommodations will likely lead to more people taking their pets on vacations, too!
As of now, only 25% of pet owners consistently vacation with their pets, 30.4% do sometimes, and 44.6% do not. We get it, it’s not always that kind of trip—especially if your pets are a real handful...
We’re glad to see this one because we certainly agree. At the end of the day, nothing else matters if our pets aren’t relocated safely. And to aid your second largest concern, “planning logistics,” we’ve got you covered.
Taking a step back, it’s important to note that 93% of pet owners have some concern about moving their pet, which just goes to show that the process isn’t easy. And while it will likely always be complicated due to regulations, we do think the rising pet-friendly culture worldwide will begin to make pet travel easier. Already, more great kennels like Kennel Club LAX are popping up to make layovers luxurious, and it’s becoming much easier for pets to fly in-cabin with their people.
This is a big trend that has emerged in recent years; we’ve all been seeing more dogs and cats at airports and on planes because of it, and it’s going to continue to become more common. After all, wouldn’t we all agree that our pets support us emotionally?
If you took this year’s survey, many thanks fur participating. We love learning about where you are in the world, how you and your pets are getting around, and where the pet travel industry is headed.
And for the 13% of you who have upcoming moves planned with your pets, we look forward to helping you make it happen!
This blog post was originally published on September 4, 2019.