Economy reins in vacation dreams

By Stan Freeman

05/15/2008- The Republican

SOUTHWICK - With his 30-foot Dutchmen Fifth Wheel trailer parked behind him, David A. Lacroix said with no uncertainty that he is "going permanent."

The RV now resides year-round in the Sodom Mountain Campground here, and Lacroix and his wife Nancy, both retired, have sold the 1-ton Chevy truck they would use in past summers to haul the trailer to destinations from Vermont down to North Carolina.

"We would travel whenever the spirit moved us. But I sold the Chevy this spring. It was costing me $350 to fill it up, and you could catch cold from the breeze of the gas gauge going down. I was only getting 7 or 8 miles per gallon," he said yesterday as he sat in a sunlit picnic chair outside the trailer.
"The gas prices are an absolute shame. The gas companies are making record profits, and some people can barely pay their bills," he said. "Now if I'm going to travel any distance, I'll get on the big bird."

Record high gas prices (an average of $3.73 a gallon yesterday in Greater Springfield) and a flagging economy are altering not only people's travel plans for this Memorial Day but probably for the summer as well.

"This year is going to be the first since 1998 that we see a slight downturn in people traveling for Memorial Day," said Sandra J. Marsian, spokeswoman for AAA of the Pioneer Valley.

"Airline travel is pretty much flat. The cost of car rentals is up, hotel fees are up and obviously gas is up. It's making it tougher to get out," she said.

Indeed, according to Rand McNally's annual Great American Road Trip Survey, released Tuesday , two in three U.S. adults (66 percent) who plan to take a road trip this summer say rising gas prices have changed their travel plans. About three in five now plan to take a trip for a shorter amount of time or distance. One in 10 have canceled or will cancel trips altogether.

High travel prices can easily motivate someone to stay home. In addition to the gas situation, air fares over the Memorial Day holiday weekend are expected to 8 percent higher than last year, and car rental rates are likely to be an average of 45 percent higher, according to AAA. Hotel rates for AAA-rated "three diamond" hotels are expected to be 7 percent less, but rates for "two diamond" hotels should be 9 percent higher than a year ago.

Every cloud has its silver lining, though, and Western Massachusetts parks and campgrounds are benefiting from people's desire to stay close to home.

Lisa A. Capone, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which operates the state forest and park system, said, "We're certainly seeing a very significant increase from last year in park reservations, a 13.7 percent increase."

At Look Park in Northampton, Jody Lemoi, the park's operations director, said, "We'll probably sell out every one of our tables for the Memorial Day weekend. It's good for us but not so great for the economy."

Janice S. LaFrance, who has owned Sodom Mountain Campground for 25 years, said her business is changing - but it's still good. She has 185 sites and nearly all will be full once the season gets into full swing.

"Normally, a lot of these people will go from campground to campground to campground all summer. Now they're coming and staying for the entire season," she said.

Interestingly, LaFrance has seen an increase in international business, helped by the cheaper American dollar.

"Our Canadian friends are flocking down here because of our low dollar and our cheap gas. They pay $8 a gallon up there. They buy a season pass here, then they travel by train to New York City or by bus to Boston. We've also seen a big increase of people coming from Europe because of the cheap dollar. They rent RVs in Boston then tour New England. So things haven't affected us very much," she said.