‘Staycations’ will have families staying home

People are canceling travel because of gas prices.

Los Angeles Times

AMELIA, Ohio — All through the months that the cold and wind and wet left this southeast suburb of Cincinnati shivering, Megan and Keith Licursi eagerly looked forward to their annual spring vacation: a road trip to see family and bask in the sunshine of Orlando, Fla.

But with gas prices nudging $4 a gallon and recession fears fueling consumer uncertainty, the couple decided to stay home.

So have some of their neighbors. The tight-knit group of 20- and 30-something friends say they are spending less time on the road in their gas-guzzling SUVs or minivans — which are big enough to haul kids, a weekend’s worth of toys and diapers, and coolers filled with juice drinks and snacks.

Recently, the Licursis and their friends gathered to map out ways to be on vacation without spending much.

Monthly “BBQ trips” in their backyards?

A rotating “spa day” at girlfriends’ houses?

Carpooling to museums or outlet malls? “It’s not that we all don’t want to go on vacation,” said Megan Licursi, 30, who runs a small public relations firm. “We just have to be smarter about how we relax.”

This suburban crew on the southern edge of Ohio is far from alone in taking such a belt-tightening approach to down time. Travel trend watchers say they are seeing a rise in the number of Americans opting for stay-at-home vacations, or “staycations.” People are canceling travel, postponing it for later or opting to take fewer, shorter trips.

When they do hit the road, vacationers tend to be far more frugal with their travel dollars, said Peter Yesawich, chairman and chief executive of Ypartnership, an Orlando, Fla.-based travel marketing company.

“To Americans, vacations are still considered a birthright,” said Yesawich. “People are trading down, not out.”

For some families, it’s a matter of figuring out which trips are necessary and which ones are whims that don’t fit into the budget.

For others, financial concerns mean changing warm-weather traditions altogether.

For more than two decades, Barry Bash has spent two weeks of his summer vacation camping with friends in Pennsylvania. He also regularly drives to visit friends in Detroit — a 2,000-mile round trip from his home in Ocean Springs, Miss.

“My 1992 GMC Suburban gets nine miles to the gallon when fully loaded. It’d cost over $700 in gas, round-trip, to go to Detroit,” said Bash, 46, who runs an online historical toys and collectibles shop. “The camping trip I can’t miss. Detroit will have to wait.”

The impact of the increased cost of gasoline is cited by many as a key reason for scaling back.

The travel price index of the Travel Industry Association, a Washington-based trade group, showed that in February gasoline prices jumped nearly 33 percent from a year earlier, while airfare increased 7.6 percent and lodging was up 3.4 percent.

All of which adds to family budget pressures and led the Licursis and their neighbors to brainstorm at-home vacation ideas. All have made adjustments to their daily lives to deal with the new economic reality and the jolt the rising cost of gas has had on their routines Jennifer Lowry, 34, a stay-at-home mom, used to spend less than $40 to fill up her Explorer. Now, it takes $60 and that barely covers a week’s worth of running errands.