Americans making shorter holiday travel plans

Students are choosing to stay home for the holidays, travel experts said.

Travel is down across the board, and people looking to get away are planning trips closer to home, said Eddie Lindow, branch manager for STA Travel, 207 E. Grand River Ave.

“The economy is the biggest thing — people don’t have the money for this,” Lindow said. “There used to be a lot of international travel, but a lot of people are just going home now.”

Earlier this week, AAA predicted holiday travel would decline for the first time in six years because of the economy and the high cost of airline tickets. According to AAA, 41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from their homes, which decreased from 41.6 million in 2007.

The holiday season typically is the second most popular travel season, behind the summer months, Lindow said. The period between Dec. 15 and Jan. 7 is the busiest travel time during the holidays.

Despite a significant drop in international travel, domestic travel has seen a slight increase, Lindow said.

“People are definitely driving more and taking the train more,” Lindow said. “Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles are the most common places asked for.”

Darren Swan, a parks, recreation and tourism resources senior, said he would like to travel and see relatives this winter, but that all will be determined by cost.

“It just depends on cash and my personal economy,” he said.

Megan Thoma, meanwhile, said she’d like to go to New York with friends for a weekend if fares are cheap enough.

“We’d have to find some cheap flights on a whim,” the kinesiology senior said.

Students seem to be shying away from traditional beach destinations in order to find more versatile trips, said Debbie Gibb, associate executive director of the Student Youth and Travel Association, in Lake Orion.

“Kids today are more worldly, talk to people on the Internet and want to go more places,” Gibb said. “People want to go do more hands-on things.”

Fewer trips will hurt countries that rely on tourism, namely Belize and Costa Rica, as well as hotels, car rentals and tour companies, Lindow said.

“We may see a trickle-down effect where luggage stores get hurt too,” he said. “Anything associated with travel is hurting.”