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Key Findings
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NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Travel planning may be what makes every vacation possible, but Klook‘s new research shows it may also be one of the least appreciated tasks. And American travel planners feel it more than most.
THE THANKLESS TASK
Among 10 everyday favors people do for others, from carrying heavy bags to opening doors, travel planning ranked as the most least-thanked task in the U.S.
The gap between perception and reality is clear. Non-planners believe organizing a week-long group trip takes fewer than 10 hours. In reality, more than 7 in 10 planners say they spend over 10 hours organizing a single trip. Nearly half of American planners, at 49.7%, spend up to 20 hours, while 21.5% spend 40 hours or more.
Because planning a trip is not one task; it is many tasks disguised as one.
AN ACTUAL JOB
The travel planner is the group’s operations manager, customer service desk, finance controller, and crisis hotline — all rolled into one.
For American planners, the biggest source of stress is managing human logistics. Their top stressors include managing budgets (54.9%), coordinating schedules (53.5%), and getting responses from others (43.4%).
Beyond budgets and calendars, planners also carry the emotional labor of the trip. More than half of American planners (51.7%) say one of their top skills is choosing options that minimize group drama, prevent conflict, and keep everyone happy.
And while everyone else is relaxing, the planner is still on duty. Nearly half of American planners check their phones six times or more a day during the trip to manage bookings, directions, and logistics.
THE COST OF THE JOB
While many travelers outsource decision-making with an “I’m happy with anything,” they often outsource responsibility too. When things go wrong, it is the planner who is left accountable.
And the blame does not add up: more than twice as many planners say they get blamed compared with the number of non-planners who admit to blaming them.
The top three complaints that planners hear are:
- “I could’ve planned this better.” (57.3%)
- “Why didn’t we do this instead?” (55.2%)
- “That’s out of my budget.” (50.7%)
Tough job. Zero paycheck.
In fact, if travel planning looks, feels, and operates like a job, how much should planners be paid for it?
More than 7 in 10 American planners believe they deserve to be paid $50 or more per hour for their efforts. Given that most American planners spend between 10 to 20 hours organizing a week-long group trip, that adds up to as much as $1,000 or more in unpaid labor.
And that is before the vacation has even begun.
HOW DO WE PAY THEM BACK?
Planners keep planning because someone has to turn “we should go somewhere” into “remember that amazing trip?”
In the U.S., 60.8% of travel planners say the trip only makes it out of the group chat because of them, while 65.6% believe the group would not travel as well without a planner.
After hours spent coordinating schedules, managing budgets (and egos), solving problems before anyone notices them, and taking the blame when things go wrong, it is perhaps no surprise that more than 7 in 10 American travel planners believe they deserve more recognition for everything they do.
Behind every memorable vacation is someone investing their time, energy, and mental effort so everyone else can just show up.
It is time we give travel planners the appreciation they deserve, and thank the friend or family member who makes the vacation possible.
