Warm weather has chilling effect on travel

With golfers hitting the links near Chicago and kayakers paddling the usually frozen lakes of Maine, a correspondingly low “cabin fever quotient” is translating to cooler sales and a smattering of lower rates at some warm weather spots.

“When it’s bitter cold, people are more likely to do whatever it takes to get out. Our phones are usually very busy in January, but we haven’t seen that this year,” says Arthur Mehmel at Connecticut-based TourScan Caribbean Vacations, where phone calls are off 30% to 40% from the same time last winter.

“Do we hate El Niño (a cyclical warming trend in the Pacific Ocean) and hope for snow?Sure we do,” says Robert Brinton of the Mesa Convention and Visitors Bureau in southern Arizona. “Our numbers are still up, but there has been a softening over the lastfew months. The weather is a huge factor in how early (winter tourists) come down.”

Hotel rates are holding strong in such snowbird favorites as Florida and the greater Phoenix area, and current deals on Caribbean cruises have been spurred more by worries over the housing downturn and a lackluster economy — along with confusion over whether new passport rules apply to cruise passengers — than by an unusually mild winter.

But “heading into peak season, we’re seeing a startling number of airfare sales” to sunny destinations, says Josh Roberts of SmarterTravel.com. Both AirTran and Spirit are discounting winter fares to Florida and the Caribbean, he notes, and US Airways is offering last-minute specials to Grand Cayman Island for flights booked by Monday.

Elsewhere, while Mexico’s CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort reported strong advance bookings for January, sales for February and March have slowed, prompting such incentives as free breakfasts and room upgrades.

But if the short-term forecast is any indication, Midwest and East Coast travelers should be ready to trade those T-shirts for woolies — and shouldn’t expect many last-minute price cuts in warmer climes.

Meteorologist and USA TODAY Weather Guy Bob Swanson notes that though mild air will continue across the mid-Atlantic and New England this weekend, a major winter storm in the southern Plains will spark below-normal temperatures across much of the country early next week — and bring freezing rain to parts of the Great Lakes and New England, including recently balmy Chicago and Maine, by Sunday.

Courtesy of  grouptravelblog.com