Top five cities for travel spending … and the bottom of the barrel, too

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hey, Arlington, Virginia residents, why are you spending so much on travel? Do you really want to get out that badly? According to a report by Bundle.com, the folks who live in Arlington spent twice the national average on travel last year: a whopping $3,534 per household. Nationwide, the norm came in at $1,571 for 2009. Meanwhile, Detroit residents spent a meager $1,158 per household on travel last year due largely to the dismal economic conditions there.

The top five cities for travel spending last year (i.e., people who live there paid to go elsewhere) aren’t terribly surprising, in that they tend to be affluent and close to major airports.

1. Arlington, VA – $3,534
2. San Francisco, CA – $3,460
3. Washington, DC – $3,409
4. Scottsdale, AZ – $3,372
5. New York, NY – $3,274
And if there’s a top five list, there must be one for the bottom, right? Garland, Texas residents either love the place so much they don’t like to leave or simply have little appreciation for the outside world: they spent an average of $647 per household on travel last year.

5. Greensboro, NC – $820
4. Lexington, KY – $809
3. Memphis, TN – $683
2. Chula Vista, CA – $676
1. Garland, TX – $647

[photo by Beverly & Pack via Flickr]

Pre-nuptial last rites get fun, expensive

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Bachelor parties used to be so simple. A bunch of guys would cram into a limo, get wasted and let the sounds of Motley Crue fill their ears while some nice young lady works her way through college a dollar bill at a time. Eventually, you’d go home and wake up sans cash, stomach contents and a few brain cells. I’m not sure what bachelorette parties involved, but I suspect there are many similarities and the differences being limited to the anatomy of the performers and the guests.

All this is changing.

The parties used to celebrate the end of single life are becoming long, intricate and costly.Las Vegas is the top destination, followed by Florida, and the average price for one of these getaways has reached a substantial $1,250 a person. The guests are usually on the hook for their own tickets.

The tourism and travel industry, looking for ways to climb out from a two-year economic hole, sees the pre-wedding party business as a way to draw some more cash into the coffers, especially for those who are looking to have as many “last hurrahs” as possible. Travel agents and destinations are even creating programs designed to appeal to this specific segment.Notes Alex Trettin, of Travel Leaders in Tacoma, Washington, to Reuters:

“We’ve created a number of programs for brides- and grooms- to-be. Most popular are Vegas and short cruises,” he said. “Even with the economy in a slowdown, more and more people are using this as an opportunity to get together with friends.”

In a further departure from tradition, some final flings are combined, with the soon-to-be spouses hitting the same destination at the same time. Once on the ground, though, the parties split to enjoy different activities.

Yeah, pre-marital partying has come a long way. But, I’ll still take a seedy strip club with “Doctor Feelgood” and a would-be medical student over the alternatives. I believe in tradition.

[photo of Social Vixen by Steve Zak]

Brit travel abroad plunged: blame the business travelers

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The homes in Britain must be incredibly cozy – because nobody left them. Travel from the UK fell to its lowest levels since the 1970s, thanks to the hangover from the September 2008 financial crisis. The number of people crossing a border dropped 15 percent year-over-year, with only 58.6 million visits abroad taking place.

As usual, the business traveler is stuck with the blame for this. Cell phone-toting, laptop-wielding road warriors in the UK allowed travel to plummet almost 25 percent from 2008 to 2009. Now, it’s not just that travel budgets got a little tighter. You also need to keep in mind that hefty layoffs thinned the herd of potential business travelers.

[photo by Dimitry B via Flickr]

Travel missing among fastest growing Facebook pages

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What happened to the hotels, resorts and destinations? These naturals for social media didn’t make the cut on All Facebook’s list of the fastest growing Facebook pages. Media and celebrities dominated the list, which consists of Facebook pages not on All Facebook’s leaderboard, but even there, there isn’t a travel-related site until #37, the destination- and company-agnostic “I need a vacation!!!”

Of course, there is no shortage of travel content available on Facebook, from Gadling‘s page to resorts such as Turtle Island on Fiji. And, social media marketing is starting to creep into thetourism and travel business. There have been some successes, such as JetBlue and Southwest, but the gains haven’t been as profound as in other industries, particularly media. Hotels are lagging. A quick poke around shows that the W Hotels page, for example, has a bit more than 10,000 “likers.”

The travel business is taking steps toward a more robust social media presence, but there’s still plenty of ground to cover. For now, it looks like it’s up to traveler to fill in the gaps! How do you use social media on the road … or to book your trips? Leave a comment below to let us know.

U.S. travel abroad slips, spending plummets

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The number of travelers leaving the United States fell 3 percent from 2008 to 2008. According to the latest data from the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, 61.5 million people comprised the outbound market in 2009. Travel Mexico was off 4 percent year over year, with Canada falling 7 percent. Overseas destinations – i.e., everywhere else – sustained a decline of 2 percent. It wasn’t all bad news, though. Records were set for Central America, Africa and the Middle East – particularly Greece, the Dominican Republic and Italy.

Spending, meanwhile, continued to lag last year. The fact that U.S. travelers spent 12 percent less abroad in 2009 than they did in 2008 suggests that budgets remained constrained. Spending within foreign countries fell 8 percent to $73.2 billion, and the cash put out for transportation via foreign air carriers plunged 20 percent to $26 billion. Nonetheless, people were finding ways to travel abroad, even if they couldn’t do it as lavishly as they did the year before.

[chart courtesy of the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries]