Trips in ’08 to cost more

Airfares alone are expected to go up as much as 10
percent.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

When you take that trip next year, don’t be surprised if your wallet feels a little lighter.

The number of trips that Americans will take in 2008 is expected to increase by 1.6 percent, but the money spent to take a trip will grow by more than three times that amount, according to the latest forecast released recently by the Travel Industry Association.

That’s because all across the board, travel is more expensive than it’s ever been.

Airplanes and hotels are more full, allowing travel companies to raise ticket prices and room rates.

On the road, the price of gas is going through the roof.

And rental cars are pricier because of rising taxes lumped onto the car and the higher costs to buy new cars from the manufacturers, experts say.

Add to that the growing concerns for the economy and delayed flights at jam-packed airports, and it’s a wonder why more travelers don’t just stay home.

Connie Hunt, a 35-year-old musician who grew up in Dallas, said she needs her regular trip to the beach in order to unwind and recharge.

“I love Hawaii,” said Hunt, who now lives in Los Angeles. “I try to go there as often as I can. I do that for my own self -healing.”

Jim Gray, owner of Jim’s Travel Link in Dallas, said he’s run into a lot of travelers who say that they can’t give up leisure traveling.

“It’s become something that’s not expendable,” he said.

And so far, travelers have become fairly resilient to the impending economic pressures and growing travel costs, said Suzanne Cook, senior vice president of research for the Travel Industry Association.

“I think the consumer will face higher prices,” she said in a conference call with reporters.

“Right now there doesn’t seem to be too much concern that that will that much negatively affect things.”

Despite the growth, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport expects to lose about 4 percent of its passengers in 2008 compared with 2006.

The official count for 2007 will be released soon, but it, too, is likely to be below the 2006 figure.

Fort Worth hotels will see occupancy drop more than 2 percentage points to 65.9 percent, but their average daily rates should grow 6 percent to $101.44 in 2008, according to PKF Consulting.

There are some changes that leisure and business travelers are making, experts said.

Leisure travelers are taking shorter trips, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re driving rather than flying, Cook said.

The emergence of low-cost carriers, such as Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, has helped keep leisure travelers flying for shorter trips.

Business travelers who have been going out of town individually to meet with a client or make a sales call are now staying home more often and tapping the latest in video conference technology, Cook said.

Gray said he’s seen a similar trend at his travel agency, which caters primarily to high-end corporate business travelers.

Walk-up fares, which are tickets bought at the last minute mostly by business travelers, have risen considerably in the past few years.

“When those fares go dramatically up, business discretionary travel goes dramatically down,” he said.

“Sept. 11 taught the business community to get used to cheap tickets at the last minute, and that has now gone away as the airlines’ strength has returned financially.”

Although individual business travel is shrinking, the call of the national convention, annual meeting or association seminar will keep other business travelers on the road, experts said.

Peter Yesawich, chairman and chief executive of Ypartnership, a travel consulting firm based in Orlando, Fla., has examined the issue closely.

“I think most executives and professionals look at the annual meeting or semiannual meeting as being a must-meet kind of event,” Yesawich said in a conference call with reporters recently.

“They go for educational purposes, they go to learn what’s happening in their industry. And that’s not true necessarily for another sales call.”

The cost to take a business trip is expected to grow 6 percent, or $63, to a total of $1,110, according to a 2008 business-travel forecast released recently by American Express.

Airfares are expected to grow 6 percent to 10 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year, according to the National Business Travel Association.

Regardless of rising costs and increased congestion at airports, business and leisure travelers across the country will continue to take to the skies.

The number of travelers surveyed who say they’re traveling less because of the so-called “hassle factor” associated with flying is in the single digits, Yesawich said.

“It’s a little bit like the weather,” he said. “It’s something that people love to complain about, but they live with.”