Hopefully this doesnt double-post, I accidentally uploaded the wrong picture before.
I did some more digging. 52% of Americans have flown in the past year, including 60% of 18-24 year olds. 70-75% of those flights were for leisure travel. (https://www.airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/A4A-Air-Travel-Survey-Key-Findings-18Mar2025.pdf) So I'm still confused - I hear all the time from young people that they can't afford necessities, that they're one paycheck away from being homeless, that they'll never own a home - but they're able to drop an average of $2k/year on vacations? (https://www.chime.com/blog/average-cost-of-a-vacation/) Make it make sense. Seven years of vacations would be the a down-payment on the median home price. I didn't take a vacation until my mid 30s because I was trying to ensure that my money went to life stability, so it's just kind of a head scratcher to me that people are so loose with their money while knowing that it could very easily make them homeless.
That's not how the average was calculated, see the article I linked. And people can absolutely have a fun time without getting on an airplane. A weekend road trip or camping trip, visiting a zoo, hopping on a train - plenty of fun and affordable options that cover most of the US without flying or dropping two stacks and threatening yourself with homelessness just to have an experience that can wait until you're more established.
Hell, my favorite vaca was completely free - I strapped a tent (free from Buy Nothing) to my bicycle (same) and rode a trail to a river front campsite that was also free (thanks, boy scouts) and sat by the water relaxing for a few nights. All I had to buy was food.