Vacation spots could get lift for summer
By Lisa Snedeker
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Economic concerns and a desire to stay closer to home may mean a rebound this vacation season for U.S. tourist destinations, travel agents say.
That's good news for Las Vegas — forecast to be the top summer travel destination for Americans — and Hawai'i, as well for other locations suffering from the post-Sept. 11 slump.
After Vegas, the top domestic vacation spots are forecast to be Orlando; New York; Honolulu; Los Angeles; Miami; San Francisco; Maui; Branson, Mo.; and Seattle, according to a survey on the Web site for the American Society of Travel Agents.
"We're in a recession in Houston, and if I'm worried about losing my job, I'm not going to set off for China," said Joe Galloway, a Houston travel agent. "Instead we're selling the heck out of weekend trips to places like Santa Fe (N.M.) and New Orleans."
Kathryn Sudeikis, a travel agent in Mission, Kan., said her clients want to take trips to California coastal cities and the San Juan Islands near Seattle.
Travel agents meeting this week in Las Vegas attribute the focus on domestic travel to economic concerns rather than travel worries or wanting to avoid airport security hassles. That means there will be plenty of people heading to the nation's gambling capital to try to bolster their budget.
"The numbers are going up and we're holding our own, but we're still in recovery mode," said Rob Powers, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
"Room rates and midweek business haven't recovered and overall spending is down. While we're certainly making strides, we're not where we were before Sept. 11."
On average, room rates vary from 5 percent to 15 percent under 2001, Powers said yesterday during the American Society of Travel Agents Western Regional conference at the Rio hotel-casino. The conference runs through Sunday.
"People are going to Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean," said ASTA President Richard Copland. "The prices have gone down and travel is back in good shape."
Sudeikis is getting more requests for cruises off U.S. coasts and other family vacations.
"I think there's a pent-up demand for travel, but people want to travel as a whole family," she said. "Instead of visiting their grandkids, grandparents are taking the whole family away on a cruise."
Cruises are more accessible now that operators have brought ships formerly based in Europe to ports along the Eastern seaboard, the Gulf of Mexico and northwest cities including Seattle.
Demand to travel to large cities like New York and Washington, D.C., is down, Sudeikis said.
"People aren't going to the capital cities as much this summer," she said.
While consumer spending on travel continues to trail and corporate travel remains flat compared with last year, travel agents are predicting a slight — 1 percent to 2 percent — increase this summer from last year's travel.
"We're cautiously optimistic," Sudeikis said.
