Travel Trends For '08: Looking Up!

Pauline Frommer, Of Guidebooks Bearing Her Name, Paints Fairly Optimistic Picture

(CBS) 

HIGH GAS PRICES

"Folks are staying closer to home," Frommer told Mitchell. "They're visiting their local parks Instead of going to the great big names in national parks, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, they're staying closer to home, taking smaller drives and shorter vacations. If you've ever wanted to see the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone or Yosemite, or any of the other big names ... this is year to do it."

CRUSIES

There will be 35 ships debuting in 2008, of which I'd call nine "major" cruise ships (many of the others are simply small yachts from the tiny fleets that do lake cruising and the like). Those nine, of which one is the recently-debuted Cunard's Victoria, will add more than 22,000 berths to the marketplace, meaning cruise agents will have to recruit an additional 1.25 million passengers next year to fill them. Though cruising had a record year in 2007, with approximately 12.5 million vacationers cruising, I think it will be difficult for agents to deal with this glut. So, I'm predicting a drop in cruise pricing for 2008, at least toward the end of the year, when all of these new ships will be afloat. How much of a drop will depend on the destination, the age of the ship, and the itinerary, but I wouldn't be surprised if some Caribbean sailings drop in price to between $40 and $50 per-person, per day.


ACCOMMODATIONS

"A lot of people are getting very angry with these hidden hotel fees and ... rising (hotel) prices," Frommer observed. So, we should see a continuation of the increased use of alternative accommodations With average hotel prices up 5.6 percent over last year, according to AAA, many travelers are looking to such alternative accommodations -- apartment rentals, home rentals, private B&B's (rooms they rent within people's homes), even monasteries, and more, rather than hotels. In updating our guidebooks, I've found that a number of rental companies have upped the number of offerings they have by a full 25 percent in the last two years. Go to sites such as VRBO.com, and you'll find they now have more than 90,000 properties to rent, a significant increase. I spoke with the folks at HomeAway.com, and they've seen a boom in this type of travel, as well. When they launched in June 2006, they represented 55,000 rentals. Today, they have over 100,000 available to travelers. Interhome, one of the largest of the international vacation home rental agencies, told me they've seen a ten percent increase in the number of visitors to its site in the past year; they currently represent 30,000 apartments and rentals.

[nativesun31]

This morning on The Early Show 12/28/07 you aired travel trends for 2008. Your expert said to watch out for hidden hotel fee''s. I am a sales manager for a hotel in Williamsburg VA. Your expert should have reworded her comment about hidden hotel fee''s. Not all hotels have hidden fee''s everything we charge for is written out in black and white ink. We give away more than we make. As a hotel in a tourist town we are struggling as it is and we do not need someone that does not have all the facts about the hotel industry to scare our guest away. It is unfair for her to say ALL hotels have hidden fee''s if there is something extra we charge for we tell our guest ahead of time.