Recession vacations: do more with less

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Vacation plans are changing. This isn’t exactly a surprise. With layoffs mounting and a careful eye trained on every expense, long vacations are becoming short, and short trips aren’t straying as far from home. For some destinations, this is actually paying off.

A handful of smaller cities are pulling in visitors that normally would set off for grander locales. Charleston, SC and Fort Meyers, FL, for example sustained double-digit growth rates in January 2009 (relative to January 2008), according to American Express Travel bookings. Tuscon, AZ, Palm Springs, CA, and Portland, OR have also seen surges – 12 percent, 13 percent and 38 percent respectively.

Even Philly is on the upswing, which makes sense when you think about all those New Yorkers who need a quick break from the city.

So, why do these numbers look so good? Well, it’s hard to say. Drops in airfare and room rates are obvious drivers. Or, it could be some sort of marketing savvy. When you look at the data, there’s no common thread.

What is universal, it seems, is that everything is getting smaller. Trips are shorter, people are spending less and the destinations aren’t as far from home as they used to be. With the many bargains that are available, we may be able to do more with less, but overall, we’re still doing a hell of a lot less.

Aside from places like Fort Meyers and Tuscon, there are a few silver linings. “Girlfriend getaways” are still going strong, but the ladies are stretching their dollars. Renting one car instead of several, chipping in for a vacation home and picking a day spa over a destination spa are popular cost-cutting measures.

Home port cruises are on the upswing, as well. Guests can drive to the port (instead of flying), cutting down on the total cost of the trip. Like everyone else, these folks are cutting some deals, too.

Pick your corner of the travel and hospitality business, and you’ll find more than a handful of bargains. The decisions we make come down to what travelers can afford – rather than what they want. But, we’re still getting out on the road.

[Via MSNBC]

Check out some of these other wacky laws, place names and signs from around the world!


Super Bowl attracts fewer private jets

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: rich people feel pain, too. Super Bowl weekend is usually a big one for private jet rental, but a fierce recession is forcing more to take airlines or … dare I say it … watch the game at home.

Around 750 private jets are expected to touch down in Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII, down 25 percent from last year’s 1,000. The last time the Super Bowl was played in Tampa – eight years ago – 1,250 of these chariots of privilege came to town.

The sting is quite real for Jets.com, a Quincy, MA company in the chartering business. Last year, the company sold 55 Super Bowl charters. This year, only 18 have been booked. And, let’s be realistic. With only a day left, I just don’t believe another 37 will be nailed down at the last minute.

Meanwhile, there is no shortage of stupidity at the destination. Ed Cooley, a senior director at Tampa International who oversees aviation planning for the Super Bowl, says, “We just don’t know” the reason for the private jet drop-off.

Seriously?

[Via St. Petersburg Times]

NY Debutantes unaware of financial mayhem

by Tom Johansmeyer on

This is why peasants revolt.

Monday night, the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in Manhattan was home to the International Debutante Ball. This display of insanely conspicuous consumption proves that, regardless of how bad economic conditions get, a generation of children will be blissfully unaware that actions have consequences. These are people that the NY Times’ Lisa Foderaro describes in such manners as, “willowy 18-year-old with chestnut hair who is a great-great-granddaughter of a 19th-century French president.” Why should they have to know what suffering the proletariat sustains?

The good news is that even the rich are suffering in this market. Attendance at the ball was down this year. There were 47 debutantes, while there were 58 in 2006. The number of guests dropped from 976 two years ago to 662 two days ago. Yet, the director of the ball, Margaret Hedberg, refuses to let reality intrude on this fantasy world. A table at Monday night’s event would have set you back $14,000, which Hedberg believes wasn’t unreasonable. “Watches cost more,” she said, probably in a way that would make the rest of us hear, “Let them eat cake.”

The good news? Foderaro writes, “Some parents recognized the disconnect between the opulence inside the hotel’s gilded doors and the mood beyond them.” For those who struggled to realize that the cost of a table is more than some people make in a year, solace was found in the fact that the event raised a few hundred grand for charity, mostly the Soldiers’, Sailors’, Marines’, Coast Guard and Airmen’s Club.

And, if nothing else, Hedberg observes that we got through the recession of the late 1980s/early 1990s, and “life does have a way of going on.”

Want to get closer? View the slideshow.

[Via NY Times, photo via Christchurch City Libraries on Flickr]