AAA Says Travel Recovery Sustainable; Cites Recent Positive Tourism Trends
ORLANDO, Fla.--July 10, 2002--AAA today called on tourism officials and business leaders nationwide to find added ways to stimulate a travel industry that is on a definite path to recovery."We need to collaborate as suppliers and distributors to make it more convenient, economical and enjoyable for travelers to leave their homes," AAA Executive Vice President Mark Brown said during the official opening of Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando.
"Those of us in the travel industry need to organize our products and our marketing to appeal to consumers who have changed their behaviors because of the events of September 11 as well as an economy that continues to struggle," Brown said.
"Americans are taking shorter trips, traveling closer to home and looking for ways to economize whenever they can," Brown added. "And, they are likely to continue these behaviors for some time due to our economic and political uncertainties."
Citing a 16 percent increase in theater ticket sales this year, Brown said that consumers are still seeking entertainment. "We just have to work harder to ensure they derive more of their entertainment from travel both near and far from home and not just from the local movie theater."
Brown said that even though one-third of investor equity has been lost since the 2000 market peaks, disposable income is up more than 4 percent and consumer spending is up more than 3 percent.
The AAA executive said that he is confident the travel industry truly is on the road to recovery and he cited the following factors for his optimism:
| -- | AAA Travel bookings for cruises, rail and motorcoach travel have increased by double-digit margins so far this year. |
| -- | Strong demand for AAA TripTik(R) routings as evidenced in the Southeast United States, with June routing requests through AAA Auto Club South, AAA Carolinas and AAA Alabama up from last year and just short of the all-time high. |
| -- | Nationwide, AAA on-line travel routing requests have risen by more than 200 percent. |
| -- | AAA projected the heaviest Memorial Day and Fourth of July holiday travel in at least eight years. In addition, the Travel Industry Association projected that automobile travel would be up 3 percent this summer. |
| -- | Amtrak ridership is up nearly 3 percent and Greyhound early summer and long-haul traffic is also up so far this year. |
"Based on these trends, we are going to enjoy a much better summer travel season than our initial worries may have led us to believe," Brown said. "It is up to those of us in the travel industry to see what travelers see so we can help them whenever and however they require it."
As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides its 45 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers.
AAA news releases are available from http://www.aaa.com/news
