ESCANABA - Despite economic concerns, local travel agents say spring break travel has remained the same or even improved since last year. Travelers this year are also venturing outside the traditional spring break locales, some opting to head overseas to Greece or Ireland and others taking exotic cruises.
DeeDee Anderson, owner and manager of Passageways Travel, said while her sales numbers were fairly similar to last year's, the destinations chosen by spring break travelers have been more varied than before.
"Some years...I can say definitively Mexico is the most popular, but this year, I think we sold everything from California to Las Vegas, Hawaii, Florida, to cruises We had people going to Europe for spring break. It seems like people are being more open as to where they're going and many people are becoming very well-traveled. Sometimes it's about culture; not always sunshine."
AnnMarie VandeWiele, owner of Travel Connections, formerly known as Carlson Wagonlit Travel, also reports people are venturing further this spring break than they were able to in the midst of the economic downturn.
"People are getting back into the travel mode," she said. "There has been lots of overseas travel this year a lot of passport purchases, and people are trying newer places."
According to VandeWiele, some of the popular spring break destinations this year were Greece, Hawaii and Ireland. She said travelers also took advantage of the wide variety of cruises, embarking on Alaskan, South American and Hawaiian cruises versus the traditional Caribbean cruise. She said her customers have spanned the age spectrum, from college kids, to families, to retirees.
Anderson said most bookings at her travel agency are made during the summer before spring break. Post-Thanksgiving and New Year's are also busy times for booking trips. She recommends planning spring break trips in the summer and early fall. This allows customers to take advantage of lower airfare prices and have more hotel options.
Anderson said she noticed several deals on cruises this winter, while airfare prices have varied, depending on the location and the amount of competition between air carriers.
"For our neck of the woods, with Delta and Northwest merging, it seems like there's one less competitor in our immediate area and so prices are stable," said Anderson. "Airfare to Las Vegas and Florida is very competitive. There are only so many seats to go around."
According to data from Bing Travel and Travelocity, airfares are up, on average about 9 percent compared to last year, while hotel rates are down 3 percent. A relatively new option for customers who plan to fly is an insurance policy for low airfare, called Fare Guard, said Anderson. This service guarantees that an airfare listed on the site will remain valid for a week, or the company will make up the difference.
Charter flights are another travel option that has grown in popularity, according to Anderson. Charter flights transport holidaymakers to tourist destinations and operate outside normal schedules.
"We deal a lot with those," said Anderson. "If a Charter flight is not full, maybe if it's during unpopular days of the week, they get together with the supplier in the destination location and they work together to come up with pricing structure, and that's how you get a cheaper deal."
