Your Best Holiday Vacation Bets
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Your Money Matters from The Wall Street Journal.
Welcome to Your Money Matters. I'm Anne-Marie Fertoli in New York. A damaging hurricane season is impacting travel trends. Bookings are up in places that were spared by major storms, while reservations in areas that were harder hit dropped significantly. Wall Street Journal reporter Scott McCartney joins us now to talk about what you need to know if you're looking to travel during the holiday season. Scott, obviously a lot of people go to these go-to spots in the Caribbean, and they're having a tough time this year as they recover from the hurricane season. Where are you seeing bookings drop in places that are particularly hurting right now?
I think Puerto Rico obviously is the hardest hit right now. And we looked at tickets already sold for Thanksgiving and Christmas from the U.S. to various destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico and elsewhere.
How has this hurricane season changed Caribbean holiday bookings?
And Puerto Rico down more than 30 percent so far this year. The U.S. Virgin Islands, also another place very hard hit. The resorts on St. Thomas basically will be closed for most of 2018. St. Croix is in a little bit better shape. St. Thomas not in as good shape. So again, we saw more than a 33% decline there in ticket buying.
Wow. So that is something I would expect in Puerto Rico. I think the latest estimates show that still 70% of the island is without electricity.
Yeah. And the hotels that are able to operate are mostly housing relief workers. And there are two cruise ships and instead they're docking in Puerto Rico and providing housing for relief workers. It's a very bad situation there. You know, some people are going to help family and friends and things like that. But I think the tourism industry obviously taking a breather. What's really been interesting and surprising to a lot of tour companies is that people are figuring out where the good places to go are, and they are determined to find a beach for the holiday travel periods. And so we're seeing large increases at places that are up and running.
Right. Very important, especially as it gets colder here in New York. I was going to ask you about the other side of that coin. Which areas are seeing an influx of bookings as a result as people, like you say, are looking for a beach?
Yeah.
Which Caribbean islands are seeing the biggest drop in travel demand?
So for Christmas, ticket sales for Barbados already up 37%. Fares were up pretty significantly, more than 20% there as well. Cayman Islands up 19% for Christmas. Interesting that fares were down a little bit there.
Why is tourism in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands still disrupted?
The fare situation is interesting because airlines will redeploy those planes that aren't going to the Virgin Islands or aren't going to Puerto Rico. They'll go somewhere else. So there will be opportunities. But we saw increases in ticket sales for the Bahamas, for Jamaica, for Aruba, for St. Lucia, for Mexico and also for Hawaii. There is a lot more air service into Hawaii and I think a lot more popularity there, too.
So for these areas that are seeing more travelers than usual, are you seeing any better deals spring up or other types of preparation for more travelers than usual?
Well, I think there are some deals here and there. It was interesting to me, Miami Beach, the local tourism authority, organized a deal with hotels, with select hotels, where they're offering 20-25% discounts. This is a promotion really to draw attention to the fact that Miami Beach came through relatively unscathed, and they know there are people out there looking for alternatives. to their usual places. What was interesting about the promotion was the discounts are good over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and you don't usually see that. I think in general, there is more airline service in the United States, a lot of it on discount airlines. I think prices will be On average, up a little bit, maybe down a little bit.
We're certainly seeing some declines. Hawaii is interesting. There's a lot more flights into Hawaii. So the number of tickets sold is up, but at the same time, fares are down. And usually when you see increased demand, it does push up prices.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:55
2
How has this hurricane season changed Caribbean holiday bookings?
0:55–2:17
3
Which Caribbean islands are seeing the biggest drop in travel demand?
2:17–2:31
4
Why is tourism in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands still disrupted?
2:31–9:14
5
Which islands and destinations are seeing an influx of holiday travelers?
9:14–9:26
Speakers
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