Is the economy still affecting your vaca plans?

[k374]

Not at all... in Jan I took a dive vacation to Cabo for a few days, in March I went to Cozumel for 8 days, and I just returned from a 9 day dive trip to Maui. I plan to do more traveling this year perhaps to Egypt and Indonesia. Fortunately I have no debt, very few bills, no kids, no family, no nothing...lifestyle choice which works out great for me!

 

[expeditioncruise]

I'm doing more research before booking anything because there are actually a lot of great travel deals out there right now...

 

[k374]

i'm not finding good travel deals mainly due to the skyrocketing cost of flights offsetting any savings from drop in hotel prices... and now hotel prices seem to be going up as well. I also see bars and such jacking up the price of drinks (one bar in Bahamas was charging $8 for a beer WTF?? and I thought the economy was down) and the discounts that were available last year seem to have vanished. Perhaps people are spending again?

 

[dvrliz1]

k374,

Not sure. The Caribbean Hotel Association forecasts for hotels, etc for 2010/2011 "high season" is up a VERY small percentage compared to 2009/2010 high season, but the resorts etc, still haven't made up for 2008/2009 season. Hotels/Resorts, etc are still in recovery mode. I'm thinking that because we do see a small increase in percentages from last year high season, they are hoping the recovery is on its way.

I, for one, am a bit skeptical. I think that airfare within the US will continue to rise, so for those who need to get to places like Miami, Houston, Newark, the major hubs, to get the Caribbean, it will be a lot more expensive. We have had really cut rate deals at our place this past year, and with the airfare from the US and EU prices package pricing for people is still really high.

Ed and I used to vacation in Aruba at least 3-4 times a year (we live on Bonaire), go back to the US to visit family and friends a couple times a year. Thank goodness we are holding our own, but have cut back a lot on travel (1x to Aruba, 1x US), as we feel we need to keep our "safety net" up just in case.

We shall just wait and see what high season brings. We are still seeing a huge increase in last minute bookings though. On a positive note, we are starting to see people inquire for 2011, and have a few bookings for 2011, to that is good.

Liz