On the heels of The World Health Organization (WHO) releasing an updated travel advisory related to the Zika virus, Fluent, LLC, an IDI company (NYSE MKT:IDI) and an industry leader in people-based digital marketing and customer acquisition, today released a new poll of 3,312 Americans to gauge their views of the Zika outbreak and how it impacts their willingness to travel in the coming months. The study, “Fluent Travel Pulse: Impact of Zika on American Travel & Tourism,” was conducted following the latest warning from the WHO that advises pregnant women to delay travel plans to Zika-affected countries.

Fluent found that nearly half of Americans say they would avoid planning (44%) or cancel (43%) their trips to areas affected by the Zika virus. However, the study also found that frequent travelers and those with higher household incomes would be less likely to alter their plans.

Other key findings:

  • Florida (35%) and California (25%) are the most likely replacement destinations for those who want to avoid Zika-impacted areas. Only 5% would choose a currently unaffected Caribbean island as an alternative.
  • A majority (54%) believe that this summer’s Rio Olympics should be either cancelled or relocated due to the threat of the Zika virus.
  • About half (49%) of Americans are worried about the impact the Zika virus will have on world health, while somewhat fewer (37%) are concerned about contracting the virus.
  • Americans want to see authorities in the US and in affected countries do more to combat Zika.

“With media coverage of the Zika virus intensifying, the travel and tourism industry may feel the squeeze as some Americans opt to avoid impacted destinations,” said Matt Conlin, president of Fluent. “Travel industry marketers promoting tourism to both affected and unaffected countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America will be better positioned to weather the storm by targeting ad campaigns to more affluent and frequent travelers who are less likely to change their travel plans as a result of the outbreak.”

Fluent is the premier advertising technology company that is regularly publishing consumer market research leveraging its network data and proprietary survey platform. The company surveys over 500,000 American adults and generates over 5.5 million unique survey responses every day. Insights gleaned from Fluent’s surveys fuel highly relevant and precise ad targeting and lookalike modeling, and are also used for the rapid execution of market research.

To download the full report, please visit: http://www.fluentco.com/resource/fluent-travel-pulse-the-impact-of-zika-on-american-travel-tourism.

About Fluent

Fluent, LLC, an IDI company (NYSE MKT: IDI), is an industry leader in people-based digital marketing and customer acquisition, serving over 500 leading consumer brands and direct marketers. Leveraging a massive reservoir of proprietary audience data, as well as millions of real-time survey interactions with consumers every day, Fluent enables advertisers to more effectively target and acquire their most valuable customers, with precision, at a massive scale. The company’s headquarters is in New York City, with a satellite office in Washington, DC.

About IDI, Inc.

At IDI, we believe that time is your most valuable asset. Through powerful analytics, we transform data into intelligence, in a fast and efficient manner, so that our clients can spend their time on what matters most – running their organizations with confidence. Through leading-edge, proprietary technology and a massive data repository, our data and analytical solutions harness the power of data fusion, uncovering the relevance of disparate data points and converting them into comprehensive and insightful views of people, businesses, assets and their interrelationships. We empower clients across markets and industries to better execute all aspects of their business, from managing risk, conducting investigations, identifying fraud and abuse, and collecting debts, to identifying and acquiring new customers. At IDI, we are dedicated to making the world a safer place, to reducing the cost of doing business, and to enhancing the consumer experience.

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