March 27 (Reuters) - Rising gasoline prices in the United States could lead business and leisure travelers to cut back on travel plans, which in turn could have implications for airlines, hotels and retailers, a survey found.
A survey of some 2,500 people by the U.S. Travel Association earlier this month found that higher gas prices would affect the summer travel plans of 54 percent of vacationers who planned to go by car. Among business people, 26.8 percent said rising fuel prices would alter their summer travels.
Oil prices remain above $100 a barrel. U.S. crude rose 49 cents to $107.52 a barrel on Tuesday, while Brent crude gained 32 cents to $125.97.
The poll also found that higher airfares resulting from rising oil prices would affect 43 percent of leisure travelers and 25 percent of business travelers who planned to fly during the summer. Read the rest of the airfare article...
by Adam Thomson.
To drop in on this year’s Tianguis Turístico in the Pacific-coast resort of Puerto Vallarta is to witness the growth, and growing diversity, of Mexico’s tourism sector.
Even one full day before it concludes on Wednesday, the annual tourism trade fair has surpassed expectations, with 7,000 businesses and travel associations in attendance compared with about 4,000 last year.
According to Gloria Guevara, Mexico’s tourism minister, there are 50 per cent more buyers than last year. She also says that companies attending the fair had already notched up 21,742 business appointments before the start compared with just over 16,000 by the conclusion of last year’s event.
“We’ve raised the fair to a new level,” she told beyondbrics.
All of that is good news for Mexico as it attempts to diversify what it can offer tourists, as well as attract visitors from new countries against a backdrop of its military-led offensive against the country’s drug-cartels.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in drugs-related violence since the centre-right administration of President Felipe Calderón first made fighting organised crime a priority in December 2006.
But against all the odds, the country has not only managed to defend the number of foreigners visiting Mexico but even increase the number. According to statistics compiled by Mexico’s migration authorities, just over 1m foreigners went to Mexico in January of this year, a 4.5 per cent increase over the same month last year.
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Tourism, one of the county’s top economic drivers, fared well this past summer — a sign that it’s helping to lead the local economic recovery, experts said.
Several cities — including San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande and Morro Bay — reported year-over-year increases in transient occupancy tax revenues (bed taxes), which were welcome news to hoteliers.
“Tourism is doing well and consumer spending overall has been coming back, and I don’t think San Luis Obispo County has been any exception,” said Jordan G. Levine, an economist and director of economic research for Beacon Economics, a Southern California-based forecasting firm that presents the county’s annual economic forecast.
“There was healthy growth in the second quarter in terms of consumer spending, and local restaurants and hotels were definitely a big part of that,” he said.
The weak dollar has helped.
“California is attractive to overseas visitors and with domestic travelers, who instead of going to Europe would rather have a nice beach vacation in San Luis Obispo County,” Levine said.
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