Pink-Slip Travel? Welcome to your Laycation

(MoneyWatch)  The travel industry is nothing if not resourceful, so when news hit that furloughed and unemployed workers would be sitting around the house, they started special rates at ski resorts and had contests for those unemployed for six months to get a vacation. While others are offering money back on cruises or flights made before patrons were laid off, the new push is getting those workers out of the house and into a hotel, ship or casino.

There may be a reason for that. It appears although people are losing jobs, they are losing them with more generous severance pay. Is it so wrong that hoteliers, casino operators and cruise lines covet that few extra thousands of dollars? Added to that are also the growing number of workers who are forced to take unpaid leave -- yet still have a paycheck.

At least one furloughed worker, a global supply-chain forecaster in Ohio, decided to use his unpaid leave for a Florida vacation and save his vacation time for later. He and his family are planning to go to Universal Studios in Florida.

"It's a lot easier when you have dual-income families," Eric Roberts told the Columbus Dispatch. "We kinda lucked out -- we'd just refinanced the house. All the stars aligned together for us, so it's not that big of an impact."

About 11 percent of companies are creating mandatory job furloughs and more are considering it, so perhaps the travel industry is meeting the trend rather than following it.

While some critics will say this is the industry going after the scraps of the recession, I think it's more than that. The whole idea of a vacation, and seemingly most important to a resort owner or cruise line, is selling a lifestyle. When your lifestyle is full of doubt and insecurity, the need to go somewhere to forget, relax and recharge is probably invaluable.

Provided these furlough packages are less than a week long, priced well and marketed adequately, the travel industry could find some profit for themselves by catering to the nation's worried workers.