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While headlines announced the
accelerating decline in travelers coming to the U.S. this past
week, the decline was blamed for increasing the economic crisis
in the U.S., according to the Office of Travel and Tourism, U.S.
Department of Commerce.
This is really no surprise, but the
news brings some possible bummers to California cities such as
Long Beach, where Jet Blue has announced it is considering
pulling out of its flights to Long Beach Airport, just as a
recent expansion of flights to San Jose and several major U.S.
cities were introduced in 2009.
Beliving that more money will help
kick-start the travel influx to the U.S., the U.S. Travel
Association (formerly the Travel Industry Association) said in a
statement that its organization was concerned that visitor
numbers were down 8 percent from a year ago.
While the organization and other
tourism agencies are urging more expenditures to try to compete
internationally, the noose continues to tighten with more
lay-offs on the way. This week newspapers such as the Atlanta
Journal- Constitution will be tapping workers on the shoulders,
 attempting to
complete a 30% staff lay-off by May. This follows the closure of
many newspapers and end of print versions of the Christian
Science Monitor.
Travel will continue to see
decreases in hotel bookings, flights, and theme park profits in
2009, as the job cuts continue to come. Even at Disneyland in
Anaheim, job cuts were recently announced.
Who's smiling? Unfortunately the
traveler isn't currently seeing great deals as we enter the
summer months. Hotels hoping to hold firm on their prices are
banking on those who have work to continue to pay higher summer
hotel rates. We saw deep cuts during the winter months, but
those bargains have disappeared mostly and the discounts are
modest today.
What can you expect for summer? Look
for some value add-ons such as "stay three nights and get the
fourth night free", or get a voucher for goods and services when
you spend time visiting.
While early predictions for a turn
around in 2009 were premature, we believe, its unlikely that
travel will rebound for a few years, and profits to hotels will
remain lackluster as overhead and expenses continue to rise.
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