{"id":35555,"date":"2022-08-15T13:48:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T17:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=35555"},"modified":"2022-08-15T13:48:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T17:48:34","slug":"even-with-vacation-prices-rising-area-travel-agents-say-people-will-pay-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2022\/08\/even-with-vacation-prices-rising-area-travel-agents-say-people-will-pay-the-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Even With Vacation Prices Rising, Area Travel Agents Say People Will Pay The Price"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Stacie Baxter at Heber Travel says there has been a high demand for travel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Andrea Harwood\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cost of vacation travel has gone up significantly. But Dawn Biddiscombe, owner and operator of Premier Plus Travel & Tours in Glens Falls, has seen an increase in business and says people are willing to pay the price.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are paying more now without questioning price\u201d, said Biddiscombe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Travelers know that prices are expected to be higher than ever, especially considering the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel, she said. In previous years, clients may have taken time to think over the cost of trips. Now, they book trips as they come available because of an inventory shortage.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants to travel,\u201d said Biddiscombe. \u201cPopular places are in Europe right now. It used to be Mexico and the Caribbean, which is still somewhat popular. Now, people want to do something more unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stacie Baxter, sales manager at Heber Travel Services in Queensbury, sees a high demand for travel as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going everywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m doing a lot of planning for Africa and South America for the end of the winter months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biddiscombe said Europe is struggling to keep up with travel demand. Ireland, Greece and Italy, including the Maltese Coast, are all in demand as travel destinations. Spain is also one of the top requests. She has people asking to go for longer stays, and they are willing to pay more money.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>\u201cThe frustrations I see lies not so much with the increased cost of air fare, but more so with the air delays,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s getting hours more of unexpected wait time at the airport, or even having to spend the night. Everyone blames employment shortages within the airline. That\u2019s going to be used as an excuse for awhile. The truth is, I think companies are trying to recoup costs by hiring less people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you\u2019re told \u2018no, no, no\u2019 on something you want, you just want it more. People have been waiting to go places, and people are ready to travel now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In previous years, an airline may reduce prices as departure date gets closer in order to fill seats. Biddiscombe said she doesn\u2019t see as many dips in airline fares as in the past. If travelers wait to make their plans, hotels book up and airline fares will almost certainly increase.<\/p>\n

As far as airports go, Biddiscombe says the Philadelphia International Airport () is the worst to fly in or out of. She said her clients consistently experience problems\u00a0 <\/span>with service, cancellations, delays and rudeness among various airline staff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Biddiscombe said Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are both very good, particularly for layovers. Nonstop flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City also tend to be trouble-free.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of having one night out or going to lake house for a couple days, we\u2019re getting a lot of requests for four to five daylong bachelor and bachelorette parties,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Destination weddings are also on the rise. Biddiscombe is currently working on a destination wedding in Mexico with a guest list of 90 people and growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to have fun now,\u201d she said, after being curtailed because of the pandemic for two years. \u201cI think now they\u2019re rebelling. They just want to do things. They don\u2019t mind the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baxter agreed with the popularity of Europe right now, particularly with cruises and guided tours. Labor shortages in European are part of the problem. Airports in Amsterdam and London in particular are \u201ca mess\u201d, she said. The struggle seems to be finding workers to come in for jobs like baggage handling and reservation taking. Those are issues with the airport, not the airline.<\/p>\n

Baxter said about half of travelers choose a guided tour as a means of taking in Europe. More young people are doing point-to-point travel and foreign independent tours, she said. People are picking a short tour or cruise, then tack on extra time to do their own thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are willing to travel to nearly any destination right now,\u201d Baxter said. \u201cWhen we said, \u2018Stop, you can\u2019t do it\u2019 during COVID, it was like taking candy away from a child. Now people can go anywhere. And they are happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are spending the money. With all the financial changes the last couple years, people are saying, \u2018Okay, we\u2019ve saved money, we\u2019re gonna do it now and worry about what happens next month,\u201d said Baxter.<\/p>\n

Anne Gordon, owner and president of Live Life Travel in Saratoga Springs, said one of the biggest challenges is helping people understand how much travel costs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe saying about having a champagne taste on a beer budget \u2013 that is often true with travel if you aren\u2019t accustomed to how much it costs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gordon, like Biddiscombe and Baxter, said Europe is in high demand for travelers. Tour operators in particular are in high demand, and private drivers are a scarcity at the moment. Unless a traveler is setting up something with a hotel that has their own in-house drivers reserved for their room specifically, private driver companies are overbooked and hard to come by.<\/p>\n

\u201cTravel agents and planners went into this year knowing that there were essentially two years of pent up demand for travel. When 2020 happened, we negotiated the refunding of 100 percent of our clients\u2019 money. It was close to $1,000,000. But what most companies did was shift those deposits and funds to 2021, which also saw massive cancellations and shifted the funds once more to 2022,\u201d said Gordon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andrea Harwood\u00a0 The cost of vacation travel has gone up significantly. But Dawn Biddiscombe, owner and operator of Premier Plus Travel & Tours in Glens Falls, has seen an increase in business and says people are willing to pay the price. \u201cPeople are paying more now without questioning price\u201d, said Biddiscombe.\u00a0 Travelers know that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":35556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senior-living-retirement"],"yoast_head":"\r\nEven With Vacation Prices Rising, Area Travel Agents Say People Will Pay The Price - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2022\/08\/even-with-vacation-prices-rising-area-travel-agents-say-people-will-pay-the-price\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Even With Vacation Prices Rising, Area Travel Agents Say People Will Pay The Price - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Andrea Harwood\u00a0 The cost of vacation travel has gone up significantly. But Dawn Biddiscombe, owner and operator of Premier Plus Travel & Tours in Glens Falls, has seen an increase in business and says people are willing to pay the price. \u201cPeople are paying more now without questioning price\u201d, said Biddiscombe.\u00a0 Travelers know that […]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2022\/08\/even-with-vacation-prices-rising-area-travel-agents-say-people-will-pay-the-price\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-15T17:48:34+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2022\/08\/travel-story-baxter-vc.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"482\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"695\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2022\/08\/even-with-vacation-prices-rising-area-travel-agents-say-people-will-pay-the-price\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2022\/08\/even-with-vacation-prices-rising-area-travel-agents-say-people-will-pay-the-price\/\",\"name\":\"Even With Vacation Prices Rising, Area Travel Agents Say People Will Pay The Price - 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