More Americans plan to travel, tourism expert tells Montana panel (Independent Record, Helena, Mont.)

Americans are traveling more -- and traveling more with their families - but they're working harder to find the lowest possible prices for their vacations, a Florida-based tourism consultant said Monday.

As the opening speaker at the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism and Recreation, Peter Yesawich said that his company's annual survey shows that more Americans are planning to travel this year than in any of the past three years, but that the demographics and desires of travelers have changed.

Yesawich, president of an Orlando public relations firm that serves travel industry clients, said 56 percent of the adult population this year plans a vacation, up from 49 percent last year. Yesawich said that whereas the '80s were about personal growth and the '90s saw people focus on money and material wealth, Americans in the post-9/11 world are turning their attention to family.

More and more families -- including children -- see vacations as a way to spend quality time together, and family travel is the only segment of the leisure travel market that's shown measurable growth in recent years.

"Kids have a yearning to spend time with their parents because with the frenetic pace of life they don't get enough of that," he said.

He also noted a trend toward groups of friends or groups of families traveling together, a trend he called "togethering." Four families may simply show up in a hotel's guest register as four sets of guests, but in reality they booked their trips together and are traveling together.

While travel trends may be favorable in terms of numbers, competition has never been more fierce for leisure dollars. The Internet, Yesawich said, has revolutionized the way people shop for plane tickets, hotel rooms and vacation packages, making price paramount. People will spend an hour searching for a better deal to save $10.

"Brand loyalty is a moribund idea in a price-transparent world," he said. "Cheaper is chicer. Does that mean everybody wants to buy it on the cheap? No, but nobody wants to overpay."

Instead, Yesawich said brand clarity becomes more and more important - setting a product or destination apart from all the others competing for Americans' leisure dollars.

"The brands that have the greatest clarity in the minds of the consumer are the ones that will get the business," he said. "Clarity is what you stand for in the uniqueness of your product, and communicating that with the people targeted."

Yesawich said Montana ranks 14th in the country as a destination vacation state -- remarkable, he said, given the state's remoteness and comparatively limited marketing budget. Florida and California top the list.

One way operators can still capture larger margins, Yesawich said, is by offering personalized vacations, presenting customers with a menu of activities and other options and allowing them to customize the experience.

The conference brought 450 travel professionals, including motel and hotel owners, museum directors, chamber of commerce directors and others from around the state. It continues today and wraps up this evening with presentation of several tourism awards.

Source: By John Harrington, Independent Record, Helena, Mont.Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News