AN UNCERTAIN SUMMER

Orange County Business Journal, May 5-May 11, 2008 by Cain, Sandi

* Roughly three-quarters of California travel is within the state, with Southern California residents heading north and vice versa. How that will play out with soaring gas prices remains to be seen. In mid-April, some stations in San Francisco were charging $4.29 for regular gas.

* High airfares, luggage surcharges, flight cancellations for equipment repairs and weather delays have done little to make our skies a friendly place for vacationers. An increasingly time-starved population doesn't want to waste precious vacation days at the airport.

The maximum travel time consumers are willing to spend to get to their destination now hovers at around six hours, down from eight hours just a few years ago, Yesawich said.

John Wayne Airport, which nearly reached its negotiated capacity last year, has seen its number of passengers drop 5.3% through March, compared to a year ago, to 2.2 million-and those figures don't yet reflect the loss of Aloha Airlines, which went bankrupt last month.

* Cruise ships are taking a bigger chunk of the consumer market, with bookings up 51% in the past five years.

While no cruise lines sail from OC, numerous three- to seven-day cruises depart Long Beach and Los Angeles for Mexico-a popular, short getaway route. And the Disney Cruises are returning to Los Angeles for the summer this year.

Sign of the Times

Customized packages targeted to the regional market, online hotel deals and special events are likely to crop up throughout the county to lure visitors.

Knott's Berry Farm, which will debut the Pony Express coaster for summer, also staged a Mexican Fiesta in April with arts, crafts, food and entertainment as an extra enticement to the area's big Hispanic population. Hotels that work with Walt Disney Co. were touting vacation packages online in early April. And the Ritz-Carlton created a program called Ride a Wave with Surfers Healing that gives back to children with autism through day camp activities on Wednesdays in July and August.

Locals staying closer to home may take advantage of special online packages, which can be changed quickly depending on demand, Hilton's Logsdon said.

"Everyone's in the same boat trying to figure out how many oars we need in the water," Logsdon said. "We expect it to last through the summer."