Want a summer vacation? Better figure it out now

We’re finally seeing light at the end of the omicron tunnel. More governments are opening borders. Mask mandates and other Covid-19 rules are easing. And with all their fingers and toes crossed, travel execs are gearing up for a surge in spring and summer travel. 

Indeed, Americans are more excited about travel than they have been since the pandemic began, according to travel and tourism research firm Destination Analysts. Steve Born, chief marketing officer for Globus, one of the world’s largest tour operators, told us in an interview that “every week over the last four weeks we’ve seen a new record in terms of booking volume over the last six months.” And the World Travel & Tourism Council is predicting domestic travel spend could hit $1.1 trillion this year, exceeding pre-pandemic levels by 11.3 percent, while international traveler spending could hit $155 billion, just 14 percent less than 2019 levels.

Yes, it sounds a bit like deja vu all over again. But barring any new variants or other Covid-19 surprises, travel advisors, airline and hotel execs and tour operators say they’re optimistic the momentum will keep growing. 

Four hot destinations you need to book now:

• National Parks are always a popular ticket for summer vacations, but demand for outdoor-oriented escapes skyrocketed during the pandemic. Yellowstone, the first national park in the U.S., and others logged record visitation last year. Booking a cabin at dog-friendly Shenandoah in Virginia became a competitive sport. To keep crowds under control, some parks are imposing new reservation systems and lotteries. (CNN offers an in-depth look.) One way to avoid having to navigate all the rules is to book a group tour. But you better hurry up, Born says. National park tours, which have limited capacity to begin with, are likely to sell out soon.

• Alaska is another hot spot for domestic travel this summer, said Born. While it doesn’t have quite the capacity constraints as National Parks, Pamela Chesnut, owner of Time To Travel in Colorado Springs, told us it has been the tightest market for her to find accommodations this summer.  “Alaska is almost 100 percent sold out for the season,” she said. “My colleagues who I work with (in Anchorage) told me they've been in business for over 30 years and they’ve never seen Alaska like this.” For example, the first available date to book a tour at the Kodiak Brown Bear Center & Lodge – which is the only place in Kodiak that you can see its famous brown bears – is on July 17, and few reservations are left through October!

• Florida. A woman we often chat with on morning dog walks has been unable to secure a summer beach rental for all the kids and grandkids in the Sunshine State since the pandemic. And she told us last week she can’t find anything again this summer, or even into 2023. That's not surprising given that the number of visitors to the Sunshine state in the last quarter of 2021 surpassed those in the same quarter of 2019. The state's Republican governor and potential presidential contender, Ron DeSantis, cited the state’s lack of Covid-19 restrictions for the booming visitor count, according to The Associated Press.

• Europe, and Italy in particular, are always top destinations for Americans. And travel sellers says bookings across the pond are picking up. “There’s such pent-up demand for Italy,” Born said. “We’ve had Italy deprivation for two years, and as Americans, we can’t handle that. I think it’s going to surge very quickly.” Chesnut said some of her colleagues have told her that availability in popular spots like the Amalfi Coast are already filling up for fall. France is also popular this year with her clients, Chesnut says. And travel companies say they expect demand for the U.K., Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal to return quickly. 

Expect higher prices and stricter rules

Prices for Globus tours and packages are mostly flat, Born told us. But Chesnut says she is seeing price hikes of 20 percent to 25 percent with less flexibility for changes and cancellations. And Virtuoso, a global network of luxury travel agencies, reports that bookings by its advisors show future hotel rates are up 54 percent internationally and as much as 80 percent within the U.S., while airfares for this spring are up 19 percent over 2019.  “What’s surprising me,” Chesnut said, “I’m not getting a lot of pushback. … The clients that are coming back are willing to pay the price.”  One area she said she has seen an almost 100 percent increase in is private drivers, with the cost of a driver to take a family of four on a seven-night guided driving trip in Ireland summer pricing out at $7,000.

Another wrinkle: Russia-Ukraine crisis

We’re bracing for more pain in the air and at the pump as the conflict in Europe drives up fuel prices. Aviation consultant Linus Benjamin Bauer told Insider that domestic fares will rise an average 6 percent each month until August, while international tickets will go up about 4 percent each month.

President Biden on the cost of war

During a televised nationwide address today, President Joe Biden braced Americans for higher gas prices.

Half a mill? Space travel soars to new heights

More than a decade after it first hoped to launch space tourism from New Mexico’s Spaceport America, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has reopened bookings – at more than double the original price. Tickets for the 90-minute trip to space are now going for $450,000 a person, up from $200,000 in 2009. Of course the only thing more unpredictable than pandemic travel is the start date for Virgin Galactic to begin taking paying passengers. He’s been saying “this year” every year for the last 11 years. But hey, there’s still 10 months left in 2022.

In case you missed it…

Border openings: Two years after shuttering international travel, Australia this week began welcoming vaccinated travelers. France has dropped its testing requirement for vaccinated travelers. Canada will ease its border restrictions next week. Vietnam will reopen to international tourists in mid-March, Switzerland has removed most of its covid-rules for vaccinated travelers, and the European Council is recommending that all 27 EU member states lift testing and quarantine requirements for vaccinated travelers next month. 

Cruise alert downgraded. Citing a decline in Covid cases on cruise ships, the CDC has lifted its warning that all Americans, vaccinated or not, avoid cruise travel. The agency still recommends against cruising for high-risk travelers and those who aren’t up to date on their Covid-19 vaccines.

And finally, what really happened to Crystal Cruises? Cruise industry expert Fran Golden offers the inside scoop on how the luxury line went from being worth an estimated $1 billion to having a bank account of zero in a matter of weeks, leaving customers out $100 million or more.