Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Will gas prices impact tourism this year?

I was just reading this story in the Las Vegas Journal about how the rising cost of gas could eventually hurt tourism this year.

I found that really interesting and I wondered if tourism related businesses around here are worried about it. I don't think they have to worry too much about Canadian tourism because Canadians having been paying higher prices for gas for years, and their dollar is finally on par with our dollar. Still, I bet domestic tourism slows down this summer.

This story got me thinking about my own summer travel costs last year, and I have to say that I may have to consider less travel this summer. Steve Everett (our IT guy), and I are part of a competitive BBQ team and last year we competed all over the Pacific Northwest. We won a number of ribbons & trophies, and a little bit of money, but this year we are going to have scale things back -- unless, of course, we start winning big money out of the gate.

How about you, have you given any thought to your summer travel plans?

3 comments:

Charles said...

Sure it will impact tourism, the last couple of years you saw very few humvees on the highway, and while there was still a lot of big motor homes most of the motor homes were the smaller ones.
I see a motel chain offering a $50 gas card for staying at their motel, so I guess the motel industry is worried.

SRTC Staff said...

Yeah, you're right, Charles... that was one of those "Duh?? Questions," but in my defense I did warn you guys not to expect Staci-level cleverness this week...

vanillajane said...

I wondered why I never heard about Staci winning any BBQ contests and then getting mad at why I hadn't TASTED any of her award winning BBQ recipes...
Whew. You just saved me an altercation...


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.