29 December 2009

Leisure travel outlook: value continues to dominate

What's hot in travel? Drive vacations, mid-priced hotels, low cost carriers, all-inclusive resorts, packaged vacations, and cruises (regardless of duration).

What's not? Luxury hotels and resorts, first class air fares and five-star dining.

That’s according to the tm (Travel Horizons) survey done by the US Travel Association and Ypartnership.

"With the arrival of the New Year, there are some encouraging signs that the travel industry is poised for a gradual recovery, although not as quickly as many travel service suppliers would like. The culprit remains the languishing economy," says the survey.

While recent GDP numbers reflect a positive trajectory and job losses have abated, American consumers have adopted more conservative spending patterns and now maintain the highest savings rate observed in the past eight years.

The study confirms that Americans still view vacations as a birthright.

One encouraging shift in travelers' sentiment involves anticipated length of leisure trips, with only half now planning to "stay fewer nights" (down from two-thirds a year ago).

"The survey results suggest that demand for leisure travel services is likely to remain stable throughout the year ahead, but 2010 will be another year of suppliers battling for market share," according to the report.

Perceived "value" will remain king, and leisure travel service marketers will have to demonstrate even greater creativity with respect to their pricing and promotional strategies in order to attract their fair share, the report goes on.

By David Wilkening

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Future Travel for 2010

Our agency has found that more and more travelers are booking further in advance instead of waiting till the last minute like they did in most of 2009. Since Nov. 2009 we have been booking more vacations 6 or more months in advance and that is a great change.

By Dezi Whiteaker, Thursday, December 31, 2009