I was asked the other day about cruise bookings for summer 2012 and how they relate to 2011. While checking numbers I found the trends to be interesting. But it also got me thinking. What is more important to people in recent years – more time off or higher quality in the time off that you have.
This is an interesting choice and it isn’t necessarily the same for everyone. It comes down to one question – What do you want to get out of your vacation?
Some people just want the downtime, and the more, the better! Staying in a value resort just so you can go on vacation as often as possible is worth it to them. It may mean driving more often to a destination than flying there so save on airfare. Getting away for a long weekend in a nearby city to catch a show or concert, go to a spa or nothing at all!
For others, it is totally about the destination. You don’t care where you stay, how you get there, what you eat, you just want to be there. For a Disney vacation, this could mean eating offsite more frequently, getting a resort with a kitchen or kitchenette to be able to cook some meals in the room or getting annual passes for the discounts and lower cost of admission (assuming you visit enough times to make this happen).
Still others are wanting the deluxe experience, regardless of what it will cost. However, they may need to cut back on some of the options to make this happen. Instead of a ten day vacation, they may cut back to only five days. They may decide that instead of a couple trips a year, they will only take one, and make it a good one! Or take some short weekend trips instead of a second vacation.
What I noticed while studying my sales numbers is that people weren’t cancelling vacations when the economy started to fail, they were just changing how they vacationed. This is where working with a good travel consultant can help. The agent that you use for all your vacation plans will know what you like and dislike, know what’s important to you on vacation and how you can scale back that usual vacation so you still get your well deserved break, yet don’t break the bank.
What are you doing with your vacations? Is the economy affecting how you vacation or not? We’d love to hear from you!
We are sort of in the middle between quality and quantity. We limit ourselves to one “big” vacation a year (meaning out of state and lasting a week or so). We will do some smaller local trips over a weekend, but really focus on the big trip. We don’t go overboard on our one big vacation, but we also don’t want to focus so much on doing it the cheapest way. For example, next summer we are driving to the Pikes Peak region of Colorado and we decided to splurge on a nice mountain vacation house for the week. Because we think it will add so much to our trip, and we don’t know when/if we would ever go back to that specific area, so we may as well splurge a little.
Nancy, you have had some great ideas of things to do while saving for a bigger trip. I love checking out your blog!
We were going up to the Chicago area for my daughters birthday this year, but now with gas being $4.00/gallon, we are going to the Atlanta area for 6 days and then heading back into Florida for a 4 day beach retreat in Treasure Island (we are from FL). We are going to be saving about $750.00 because of these changes, but I think we will be having just as much fun as going to Chicago 🙂
That’s too bad about Chicago. I could have come down to see you 🙂
Being a solo traveler most of the time, I get to be extremely self centered in my vacationing choices. I look for what will give me the best vacation experience for the money I am spending.
Most of the time, I don’t find the need to pamper myself with extreme luxury. I have somewhat simple needs, which makes it feasible to take more vacations throughout the year. Things such as an Annual Pass, easily earned frequent flier miles and discounted stays make it even easier to attain.