Vacation Rentals Should Finish out a Strong Summer With Increased Labor Day Travel
Aug. 30, 2006. For owners of luxury vacation rentals in popular vacation destinations this summer has a good one. Despite dire warnings that soaring gas prices would cause vacationers to cancel or cut short their trips, it does not seemed to have happened. In our own experience, as well reports we have read, it has been one of the best summer seasons ever.
To cap off the summer travel season the AAA estimates that 35.2 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday, a 1.2 percent increase from the 34.8 million who traveled last year.
As reported in the Hotel News Resource, AAA says approximately 29.6 million travelers (84 percent of all holiday travelers) expect to go by motor vehicle, just over the 29.1 million who drove a year ago. AAA also projects that eleven percent of holiday travelers, (3.9 million) plan to travel by airplane, down from the 4.0 million that flew last Labor Day holiday. A projected 1.6 million vacationers (4.5 percent) will go by train, bus, or other mode of transportation, down from about 1.7 million a year ago.
While the AAA attributes the increase in Labor Day motor vehicle travel to the fact that gas prices have recently fallen, our own experience and our survey of guests during the summer would not suggest that gas prices have played a significant role in our guests’ vacation plans.
