National Park Vacations"NATIONAL PARK VACATIONS"
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06-11-1995
We've worked hard and driven ourselves crazy and stayed up way too late for a little too long. It's payback time. No more of this scrimp and save stuff. No more shoestrings. No more working without end. It's time to get out the checkbook and the plastic, get out of town, and SPEND! In the last several years, ultra-expensive hotels, resorts, tours, and cruise ships have been proliferating. It's often harder to get reservations at the high-end places than the budget ones. People are feeling more optimistic about the economy and their own finances, and they're treating themselves. NATIONAL PARK VACATIONS "Service is the ultimate amenity of the Nineties," said a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton chain of luxury hotels. Americans are planning more summer trips this year than last. And, more important, they'll splurge, said William S. Norman, president and CEO of the Travel Industry Association of America. In TIAA's survey of summer vacation plans, Americans reported they were going to spend an average of $1,046, 9 percent above last year. "They're going upscale in the nature of their activities, and they're going to spend more. There will be more interest in high-ticket travel, like cities, theme parks, cruises, and Alaska," Norman said. Showing a drop will be national park vacations, RV trips, and similar budget activities. "They plan to spend big." The long vacation may also be making a comeback -- not displacing those ever-popular short weekends away, but supplementing them. The average summer vacation this year is expected to be nearly eight nights, up from 7.5 nights last year, the TIAA reports.
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NATIONAL PARK VACATIONS " `Stop the world, I want to get off!' may be the battle cry of more and more of us," Suzanne Cook, senior vice president of TIAA, predicted in a meeting with travel editors recently. If even for just 7.9 nights. Along with general happiness over the recuperation of the economy, the boom in travel is linked to the baby boomers. "One very important, overarching trend is the aging of America," Cook said. "The aging of the boomers should provide a significant stimulus to travel" for several reasons. As we get older, we're also getting more financially comfortable. And, psychologists (at least some of them) say that as we age we shift from collecting material things to collecting experiences. Also, boomers have been a mobile group from the days of hitching across Europe and searching for America; they just kept going. And if the Joneses went to Borneo, you're going to want to go there, or farther. NATIONAL PARK VACATIONS This keeping up with the Joneses is especially appropriate today, when people may think their money is better spent on a wonderful travel experience than on a new house. Some of the delirious spending may come once the kids are through school and the parents are left with the empty nest. Cook predicts that the honeymoon market will go down, along with the trend for traveling with kids. Instead, more couples and singles will be traveling. In 1970, 41 percent of all households were married with children. By 1990, that was 26 percent. And nearly 25 percent of all households now consist of people living alone.
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Were you wondering why Disney was airing all those ads about adults visiting the theme park without children? It looks, then, like the future is brighter for Americans traveling. A couple of other interesting trends: · The information superhighway is going to pave the way for better trips, better service for travelers. "The mass-marketing game is over," Cook said. "Interactivity, on-line connections, e-mail, faxes, and eventually interactive TV will all enable one-to-one marketing." That means the industry will be better able to customize a vacation to your needs. · Gambling continues to be an enormous trend; in 1994, revenue was up 24 percent over the year before, to $16 billion. Growth is expected to slow, however, as markets become glutted. NATIONAL PARK VACATIONS · With the new "quality of life" emphasis, Americans are seeking greater balance in their lives. That will include travel. That will also include more "quality" travel, such as ecotourism and healthy vacations -- although less-vigorous activities will come as the population ages. · An increased educational level also will shift emphasis on the destinations and activities we choose; learning about other cultures, the arts, and history is becoming ever more popular. Sounds good to me..... Compare national park vacations here /cheap airfares home |