What is trip stacking and why are travelers booking multiple trips?

Travel planning usually involves booking a trip to one place at a time.

Now a growing number of people are booking two or even three trips over the same travel period in case Covid-related problems ruin their preferred plans.  

The trend is called “trip stacking,” and it involves booking a more aggressive trip — say, going abroad or taking a cruise — that is backed up by a trip that’s less likely to be canceled.

By planning multiple trips to different geographic areas, travelers can also pick the trip that suits their comfort level closer to the time of departure.

Trip stacking is “a fairly new trend,” said Misty Belles, managing director at the luxury travel network Virtuoso. She estimates it began between May and June, after vaccinations were being rolled out in the United States, and Europe was starting to reopen.

The trend picked up steam during the summer when new Covid-19 variants started to disrupt travel plans around the globe, said Joshua Bush, CEO of the Pennsylvania-based travel company Avenue Two Travel.

He told CNBC his clients would sometimes wait six to nine months to travel, only to have their plans dashed close to their departure dates.

By early August, more than 50% of Americans had canceled or changed travel plans due to the delta variant, according to a survey conducted by the financial website FinanceBuzz.

One of Bush’s clients booked a Silverseas cruise from Athens to Rome in October and a 10-day trip to Hawaii over the same period, he told CNBC.

“The thing is … actually that Hawaii might be a little bit more of a challenge than actually going to Greece,” he said, referring to Hawaii Governor David Ige’s announcement last week that travelers should stay away from the state.

Mexico and the Caribbean islands are also serving as safety net destinations for Americans, because they’re easy to get to, Bush said.

Belles told CNBC about a traveler who booked a trip to Portugal before it reopened, with Florida as the backup plan. Portugal opened in time, and the traveler was able to take the European trip. She pushed the Florida trip to the end of the year.

“By and large, cancellation policies have stayed really flexible, allowing the traveler to have that choice,” said Belles. “But as travel starts to return in a more fulsome way, you may see that changing a bit.”

Trip stacking works for some in the industry: Travelers are more likely to get their vacations, and travel agencies can earn more money when they do. Australian agency magazine “Travel Talk” published an article on the trend this…