From the "Blinding Flash of the Obvious" File

According to a recent CNN online article, the travel industry lost an estimated $18.1 billion (yes, billion, with a b) in the last year. The driver of this loss was, oddly enough, average travelers - who took an estimated 41 million fewer trips (29 million leisure and 12 million business) in the last 12 months than in the previous year. The airlines carried fewer passengers, hotels had fewer guests, holiday destinations saw fewer visitors, and local municipalities lost an estimated $4.2 billion in income that would otherwise have been realized through taxes on hotels, restaurants, and other tourist-fueled businesses.

I guess anyone who didn't see this coming is deeply into Mexican Happy Grass. Airline ticket prices and miscellaneous fees are going up faster than a nun's eyebrows at a nude beach, and the price of gasoline long ago lost any contact with reality. The new word I've seen used often is staycation, meaning a vacation spent at home or at destinations in one's local area to minimize cost.

There was a time not so long ago when travel was fun. It was relatively expensive, but not beyond the means of average working-class people who planned carefully. Now, thanks to the greed of the oil industry and the utter lack of focus on airline customer service, the travel industry is in the toilet because people just aren't willing any more to pay outrageous prices for the privilege of being treated like cattle.

From a business perspective, I know that we travel much less than we used to. Many meetings we used to hold in person are now done via video conferencing...not as good as sitting around a table and looking each other in the eye, but a lot less expensive. The cost of the air travel is bad enough, but you also have to allow so much extra travel time in case of enroute delays or unexpected flight cancellations that you end up spending unnecessarily large amounts on per diem for travelers. I used to fly somewhere on business about once a month...this year, I expect to travel only twice all year. Agnes and I are hoping for a vacation later in the year, but we'll just have to see how the prices look between now and then.

Oh, well...at least we have an enormous personal library, a very good public library system, a large music collection, a few hundred tapes and DVDs, and a nice deck out back to enjoy them all on. My garden is booming. We don't need to leave home at all.

Too bad I may not be able to see too many more of those 1000 Places to See Before You Die.

Have a good day. At home. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo