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Vacations still a go, despite gas prices

With Memorial Day about to start the summer travel season, surveys suggest that high fuel costs won't stop trips.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published May 19, 2006

Slightly more people are expected to travel over the Memorial Day weekend in Florida and across the nation despite near-record gas prices and rising air fares, according to AAA.

Just more than 2-million Floridians will travel at least 50 miles from home, an increase of 1.4 percent from last year, AAA Auto Club South said Thursday.

More than 80 percent will drive although the average price for a gallon of regular gas statewide was $2.84 Thursday, up 63 cents from a year ago.

"We're still seeing a pretty steady number of people driving,'' said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for AAA Auto Club South. "There's a duality in the minds of consumers in the travel they do for work and driving they do for leisure.''

Nationwide, AAA expects 37.6-million Americans will travel over the holiday weekend that traditionally kicks off the summer travel season. That represents a 1 percent increase over 2005.

Florida businesses that cater to tourists are nervous going into summer. Besides rising gas prices and air fares, they fear a third straight active hurricane season could scare away customers.

Hotels in many parts of the state, including the Tampa Bay area, have already seen declining room sales.

For the first three months of this year, room sales are down throughout Florida by 4.2 percent compared with the first quarter of 2005, according to Smith Travel Research, which tracks hotels that control two-thirds of the state's hotel rooms. Sales were off 4.4 percent in Pinellas and 2.2 percent in Hillsborough for the quarter.

Tourism officials are hard-pressed to explain the drop, except to note they expected a weaker March because the Easter holiday fell in April this year. Most hotels are still reaping year-to-year revenue gains thanks to rising room rates.

"At the end of the day, they want to count the money in their wallets, not heads in beds,'' said Brad Garner, spokesman for Smith Travel in Hendersonville, Tenn.

In Orlando, where room sales are down 6 percent since August, some hotels are giving away gift cards for $10 to $25 worth of gas through September to attract guests.

AAA, however, says the pain of today's gas prices isn't enough to keep tourists from driving on vacations.

Even with gas at $3.50 a gallon, only 19 percent of travelers interviewed in a study last fall said they would cancel a vacation. Most said they would drive a shorter distance, fly to their destination or find other ways to cut back on spending during the trip.

AAA said its travel agencies saw strong demand for summer travel during the first quarter of 2006. Airline ticket sales were up 20 percent, cruise and tour packages increased 11 percent and requests for "TripTix'' maps rose 2 percent.

Also Thursday, the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau announced that an estimated 17.8-million visitors came to Hillsborough County last year, an increase of 5.3 percent over 2004. They spent about $3-billion, the tourism marketing agency estimated.

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

[Last modified May 19, 2006, 06:08:20]