Americans may travel more this year

Americans won't let high-priced gasoline interfere with their travel plans if industry surveys prove true.

The Travel Industry Association (TIA) predicts that leisure travel will increase 1.4 percent over last summer.

The forecast comes on top of a AAA survey last week that predicted travel for the Memorial Day weekend will increase 1.7 percent over a year ago.

AAA also predicted that travel by motor vehicle would be up by 1.8 percent.

TIA, however, suggested that travelers this summer may spend less on hotels or restaurants to make up for the dollars they will pour into their gas tanks.

"Some people will shorten the trip in terms of nights they spend away from home or distance traveled," said Suzanne Cook, senior vice president of research for the association. "They'll do things like find a more modest form of food, cut back on restaurant purchases, downscale on their hotels. We've already been seeing some trading down in the hotel sector."

Automobile travel will account for eight in 10 summer trips, TIA said. Air travel, however, will rise about 3 percent, the association predicted.

"Airlines are going to be crowded this summer," TIA spokeswoman Cathy Keefe said.

Business and convention travel is expected to remain strong as well, increasing by about 3 percent this summer, TIA said.

The association predicted that 330 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more one-way during the summer.

AAA predicts that 38.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more away from home for the Memorial Day weekend. About 84 percent of those travelers, or 32.1 million, will go by motor vehicle. Average household spending for the Memorial Day weekend will be $594, AAA said. Fifty-seven percent of those households will travel with children.

The Midwest region is likely to have the highest portion of travelers with children at 66.6 percent, AAA said.

American Airlines Unveils Plans for New Way for Customers to Purchase Travel

In addition, American Airlines Vacations, a division of American Airlines, revealed it is making enhancements to AAVacations.com. Customers will begin seeing changes this summer, with additional enhancements coming in following months.

The enhancements to AA.com, which has, on average, more than 1.2 million unique visitors per day, were developed using extensive customer input and include user-friendly features that provide expanded options to plan and purchase travel. Currently, customers can search either by price or by schedule. These new features will take their travel purchase experience to a new level by soon offering a third option: to see flight choices in a convenient display which shows price and schedule combinations, stated the company.

“The new shopping and ticket purchase functionality on AA.com will empower customers to evaluate their flight options by providing a convenient display of schedule, price and levels of service combinations. When customers search for flights, a new results display will return a range of schedule and price possibilities for the departure and return portions of a roundtrip, which can be checked independently. This new display will enable customers to see how their trip choices impact the price, and will offer customers more control to customize their travel plans according to individual priorities,” added the company.

Bella Goren, American’'s Senior Vice President -- Customer Relationship Marketing and Reservations said, the combined price and schedule display will make booking travel on AA.com even easier, smoother and more streamlined.

The new display will allow travelers to sort results by expanded criteria including price, number of stops and departure and arrival times, and will provide easy access to flight detail information. A click will enlarge a selection and provide additional flight details including travel time, seat maps, AAdvantage miles, aircraft type and meal availability.

About AAVacations.com, the airline stated that the new site will use technology that enhances the shopping experience by allowing customers to easily choose among individual vacation elements to design unique, customised trips that fit their needs and budgets.

“These changes represent American’s strategic investment in services and products that make solid business sense while improving the overall customer experience. Enhancements to AA.com, American’s largest distribution channel, underscore the company’s commitment to lower costs to compete, building a financial foundation for the future and giving customers what they value -- key tenets of American’s Turnaround Plan,” stated the airline.

High prices impact travel

The cost of traveling - for hotels, rental cars and airline tickets, as well as the all-too-familiar spike in gasoline - is up. So how crowded will the roads and skies be this summer? It might depend on whether you drive or fly - and whether you're staying in the U.S. or going abroad.

The coming Memorial Day weekend is supposed to pave the way for a solid summer season, where leisure trips of 50 miles or more will increase 1.4 percent to 329.6 million from June through August, the Travel Industry Association says.

Yet the percentage of Americans planning a vacation within the next six months - 40.4 percent in April - was near a 30-year low, according to the Conference Board's latest consumer confidence and buying plans survey. Reflecting the state of gas prices, the number of people planning to drive on vacation also was near a 30-year low, according to the survey of 5,000 consumers, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.

But air travel plans remained at a healthy 19.1 percent - just 3.5 percent below the all-time high set in the same month of 1998.

Despite the dollar's weakness, 9.9 percent of Americans had plans to visit a foreign country - the fourth-highest reading in 30 years.

"I'm paying for this - but it's worth it," Marci Morgan, a 23-year-old law student from West Chester, said before she caught a flight to Rome on Friday with her University of Dayton classmate, Susan Suriano. They planned tourist stops on a 16-day trip through Italy while studying international human rights issues for their school.

Morgan and other local residents catching overseas flights out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport said they're concerned about rising costs - but not enough to alter their plans.

Gerlinde and Stefan Schmitt of Loveland were catching a flight to Frankfurt on Friday. They fly back to their native Germany to visit family and friends each year.

Usually, they would fly in the off-season, but this year, they wanted to celebrate Stefan's parents' birthdays in May. Still, while the scientist and quality assurance executive can afford to make the more expensive trip, they lament that U.S. gas prices are resembling European ones more and more. European countries heavily tax fuel.

"We're spoiled here because gas was so nice compared to Europe," she said.

Still, costs appear to have the most impact on domestic plans.

The Conference Board said the share of people planning to visit U.S. destinations - 32.9 percent - was the lowest recorded since its bimonthly survey began in 1978. The percentage of people planning to travel by car on their vacation - 20.9 percent - was the second-lowest in the survey's history.

WILL DRIVERS ALTER THEIR HABITS?
Some experts say U.S. travel could be vulnerable if gas prices continue to climb.

Tom Kloza, an analyst with the Oil Price Information Service, said several parts of the country are reaching a "tipping point" of $3.25 a gallon for regular unleaded where he predicts motorists will put the brakes on their driving habits and possibly their travel plans.

Kloza noted that chains in Western states are noticing sales "flattening" as consumers paying $3.30 to $3.40 a gallon alter buying habits.

OTHER TRAVEL COSTS UP, TOO
While gas prices are in the spotlight, travelers and tourists must also contend with several other higher costs.

U.S. hotels were charging an average daily rate that's 6.1 percent more during the first three months of this year, according to Smith Travel Research; average airline ticket prices were $378 in the U.S. by the end of 2006 - the highest in six years, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics; and the car rental industry is grappling with fallout from ailing automakers that no longer want to flood them with cheap fleet vehicles.

The Travel Industry Association's Travel Price Index for April said total travel costs were up 2.8 percent for the year so far - with only intercity transportation costs faring cheaper than last year, with a 0.3 percent decline.

Suzanne Cook, senior vice president of research for the association, conceded in her report that high gas prices will force 11 percent of travelers to make some changes in their vacation plans this summer - such as staying at cheaper hotels, dining at less-expensive restaurants and shaving a day or two off a trip's duration.

Still, she contended that "the real tipping point" is $3.50 a gallon - adding that a third of those surveyed said they would cancel vacation plans at that point.

"The majority of consumers expect to continue to see high gas prices this summer, but they seem to be taking it much more in stride," she wrote.

The Lan-TAM Alliance Will Make Travel Easier in Brazil and Chile

Brazil's TAM Linhas Aéreas and Lan Chile, both airlines with a clear dominating position in their domestic markets have agreed to formalize a business alliance. The agreement to be implemented in the next three months aims to develop partnerships in routes operated in South America, broadening passengers' options to fly to several destinations.

TAM will expand its flight offer in South America to include a more complete and diversified network for its passengers. In addition, clients of LAN will enjoy the ease of traveling routes operated by TAM with multiple hours and frequency options.

One of the benefits passengers will enjoy with this business alliance is being able to travel with a single ticket from the beginning to the end of the route, in addition to the possibility of using the companies' VIP areas. Another advantage is the accrual of the TAM Fidelity Program and the LANPASS, benefiting passengers who travel frequently.

TAM's CEO, Marco Antonio Bologna said the alliance with LAN represents an important step towards the regional integration process in South America, thus stimulating the distribution of passengers in the Brazilian, Chilean, Argentinean, Peruvian, Venezuelan and other markets.

"TAM and LAN passengers can rely on a wider variety of flights while enjoying all of the advantages of both companies' fidelity programs" said Bologna, who points out that the agreement also reinforces TAM's strategy of maintaining partnerships with leading companies in the markets where it operates.

Enrique Cueto, LAN's vice-chief executive officer, said, "Thanks to this agreement, our passengers will enjoy an excellent network that will make their travels easier. This will encourage commercial agreements already existing between the countries, fomenting tourism and bilateral cooperation in the region."

TAM has been the Brazilian domestic market leader since July 2003, and closed last April with a 50.72% market share. The company flies to 48 destinations throughout Brazil and with commercial agreements executed with regional companies, reaches 75 destinations outside the national territory.

LAN is one of Latin America's leading airlines and is integrated by LAN Airlines, LAN Express, LAN Peru, LAN Ecuador, and LAN Argentina, as well as LAN Cargo and its affiliates.

LAN Alliance serves 15 destinations in Chile, 12 in Peru, 10 in Argentina, two in Ecuador, 15 destinations in other Latin American countries and Caribbean, three in the United States two in Europe and four in the South Pacific, in addition to 52 additional international destinations through several code-share agreements.