Keep Smiling, Life is a Vacation

The tourism stats produced by compiler companies such as PKF Consulting show that they were almost as bullish as Wall Street traders in missing just how deep the recession would be. Their recently-released figures predicting the percent of decline in vacation and business hotel bookings from 2008 to 2009 were under by a few points, as were their estimates on the speed of recovery. In previous news this consulting group predicted hotel bookings and revenue would turn around in late 2009, while their updated predictions take most destinations out to 2011 for a turn around in revenue and occupancy. While they broke down the numbers and pointed to a few high performers they expect to see weather the storm better, their outlook was somewhat gloomy, though not completely dismall for those able to tighten belts.

As a tourism pro writing about and selling products such as theme park tickets and hotel packages, my sales numbers haven't exactly matched the data for percentage of change shows. I have often pondered why this is so, but much like the past year when I waited for the shoe to fall and only heard "great news". I don't trust the numbers much.

Several theories I have to account for the discrepancies include the possiblity that while hotels and cities are reporting reductions of around 8 to 15% in TOT, their losses in profit may be in larger ranges of up to 50%, especially if they are giving rooms away for near break-even prices. A hotel can be bringing in similar revenue to before the recession hit like a brick, but maybe this property is having to sell 100 room nights now instead of 50 to make the same revenue.

While the TOT should go down when you're bring less money in (most TOT taxes are tacked on your bill when you pay for a room and the fee usually ranges from 6 to 15 percent.

Whatever is going on, the one thing you can count on to entertain you are your region's museums and natural assets. From free events to free museum admission, and those beloved free summer concerts, it's a great time to learn what's going on in your destination, and how you can participate and feel like you are on a vacation. Travel really is about perspective. The excitement is the "new" feeling. Once that wears off, then you often are in a rut. With the right framing of your experiences and perspective, you can participate in things that tourists would actually fly or drive a distance to enjoy. So Keep Smiling. That costs you nothing!