A much-needed staycation
High gas prices and soaring airfares may be giving rise to a new type of vacation -- a staycation.
Recent attendance figures at Chicago's Field Museum suggest would-be jet-setters are sticking closer to home. Over Memorial Day weekend, 61 percent of the Field's visitors hailed from the Chicago area. During the same period last year, the museum logged roughly an equivalent number of visitors but only 37 percent were local.
The American Automobile Association reported national average gas prices were up 19 percent from a year ago, with Chicago having one of the highest average gas prices in the country at $4.07 a gallon in late May.
Record-high gas prices are prompting more than a third of Americans to rethink their vacation plans, a USA Today/Gallup Poll showed. Of those altering their travel plans, 37 percent are scrapping trips and one in four won't go as far or stay as long, the poll found.
"We're pretty close to the toughest summer ever, at least for consumers," said Rick Seaney, CEO of Fare compare.com.
Reservations for 2,500 campsites and attractions on federal land show people aren't venturing too far. Residents of 33 states who made reservations from February to April for this vacation season chose more destinations in their own state than in 2007, a USA Today analysis of federal data showed.
Fewer users of Hotels.com are planning weeklong vacations that involve flying, said Scott Booker, the site's guest advocate. "They're opting to do shorter stays, weekend trips and stay closer to home," he said.
Gasbuddy.com, which operates 181 Web sites that track gas prices nationally, got nearly 37,000 responses to a Web poll asking whether people plan to drive less this summer; 75 percent said yes.
Sheila McConnell, a Chicago bookkeeper, said gas prices prompted her family to cancel a driving vacation in South Dakota. They'll save at least $200 by driving to Wisconsin instead, but her three kids "feel cheated."
Not everyone is putting their passport away. AAA expects 25.1 million Americans will be traveling internationally this summer, an increase of 2.6 percent over last year.
Lori Rackl and USA Today