Posted on: Thursday, July 8, 2004

U.S. leisure travel overseas is surging

By Jane Engle and Christopher Reynolds
Los Angeles Times

Facing war, scorn, terrorism, a tentative economy, a weak dollar and daunting transatlantic fares, hundreds of thousands of American tourists have come to a resounding conclusion this summer: They don't care.

They're going on vacation, and they're going overseas, in numbers not seen for years. By every major measure and against indicators that would suggest a different picture, U.S. leisure travel abroad is surging.

"I had no hesitation about coming here, though every adult in my life was cautious," Ashley Thomas, 22, of Los Angeles, said one recent day at the Louvre in Paris. "My philosophy is: I can't live in fear. I'm the perfect age for Paris."

This increase in Americans headed abroad has startled the travel industry, which peaked in 2000 and early 2001, suffered billions of dollars of losses after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then limped through two years of fitful recovery until this swell began. In the days leading up to the Fourth of July weekend, industry leaders were still struggling to explain the numbers.

Maybe, some say, it's simply a matter of national cabin fever, a populace tired of staying home. Or maybe, others suggest, the prototypical American tourist is transforming from nervous neophyte to savvy traveler.

"I've never been so busy in my life," said Ada Brown, a travel agent for 28 years and owner of Seaside Travel in Long Beach, Calif.

"It's becoming almost impossible to get air space," she said, although that's partly because some airlines are still flying lighter transatlantic schedules than they were before Sept. 11.

Hawai'i has also benefited from the recovery in leisure travel.

The statewide hotel occupancy level rose to 72.5 percent in May, a healthy 8.1 percentage point increase over the same month last year.

A record inflow of Mainland visitors and a sharp jump in arrivals from Japan helped Hawai'i tourism arrivals post a double-digit increase in May for the third-straight month.