Cabin fever’s release is finding expression in bookings for summer vacations, and Shayla Northcutt, owner of Northcutt Travel Agency in northwest Houston, is getting phone calls.
“We’ve actually seen an uptick in the past two weeks.Our phones are ringing not to cancel anymore, they’re calling us to book trips,” she tells KTRH News while checking out potential vacation ideas in the Charleston, South Carolina area, making a stop in Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head tomorrow and then down to Panama City before hopping over to Destin. She says clients are looking for vacation ideas within the U.S. for at least the near future.She says travelers who would normally be booking European trips or Mexico or Jamaica are instead looking for something inviting within our own shores, the beaches of those shores being especially attractive. Northcutt says she’s finding that people are kinda stir crazy, and Texas residents are open to road trips. “I think the thought of them not being able to go anywhere has made them want to get out a little more, so we are seeing an uptick in San Antonio Hill Country and all the different areas that have resorts.
Northcutt says she’s going to make a few trips to Mexico and the Caribbean herself in the coming months to make sure accommodations are safe before recommending them to others, imaging that international holiday vacations involving air travel will be slower to return to pre-Covid levels than driving options. But she says she fully expects them to come back.
Travel stocks took a serious hit in Wall Street trading Thursday, Expedia, Trip Advisor, Marriott and Hyatt among the losers.