As a traveler who prefers the off-season when prices are more affordable and there are fewer tourists, I try not to fly in July and August, at least in the northern hemisphere. I usually wait until the fall when flight and hotel prices plummet and the crowds are less.
Or so it used to be.
This year, hotel prices in Florence, Italy, in September were close to their summer highs. I ended up moving out of Key West, Florida in November, which was a historically slow month.Thinking about eco-friendly resorts Playa Viva During the first week of December, there was only one night available for less than $500 near Zihuatanejo, Mexico — long a bargain time to travel.
What happened in the offseason?
“September is the new August,” said founder Jacques Ezon. Let’s go beyondThe New York City-based luxury travel agency said the European travel frenzy has led to the extension of its itinerary. Nearly a third of his clients who regularly travel to the Mediterranean in July and August have rescheduled their plans to June, September or October.
“People are choosing to avoid crowds and heat,” said founder Virgi Schifino Kennedy. Lux Voyagea travel agency based in Philadelphia.
“We are seeing summer rates entering shoulder season,” she added, noting that destinations like Santorini and Mykonos in Greece, which peak in July and August, “are currently experiencing “Reservations for September are no longer possible.”
Although the biggest peak in travel each year is still largely determined by school calendars, the decline in travel numbers and travel rates has been less dramatic.
“I think we’re at the beginning of a change,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst who runs the company. Atmospheric Research Group The San Francisco-based company believes flexible work schedules are a contributing factor to the trend. “Summer is always the peak season, but I think there will be more off-peak travel in the fall, winter and spring. So the trough may not be as deep.”
The arrival of shoulder season
There’s no doubt that travel is coming back, with the World Travel and Tourism Council announcing that the travel industry will recover 95 percent of 2019’s activity this year, but it’s not a repeat of pre-pandemic patterns.
Compared to 2019, global leisure stays increased by 12% to more than 230 in spring 2023. sofitel and M Gallery Hotel. Leisure passenger bookings for fall 2022 were up 7% compared to the same period pre-pandemic.
“Shoulder season bookings were once the travel industry’s best-kept secret, but more and more people are jumping on board with the trend,” said Matt Barna, president of Americas. Intrepid Travel, a global travel company. He said bookings for this year’s fall and spring are up 56% and 70%, respectively, compared to pre-pandemic business, prompting the company to increase departures to meet demand.
river cruise line Ama waterway has likewise added new itineraries for November and February.
G AdventuresThe small-group travel company says it’s seeing a 40% increase in bookings from Americans this year compared to 2019. Once summer vacations in Italy sell out, travelers should start looking more closely at their calendars, said Steve Lima, the company’s vice president of growth. G Adventures USA and Latin America.
“It’s like Disney is always busy and you never have time to have fun, so you just go,” Lima said.
Katie Parra, Rome-based private guide and cookbook author gourmet tourdescribed a worst-case scenario in which a traveler who booked a tour for their 35th wedding anniversary was unable to attend until their 37th wedding anniversary due to travel restrictions and complications over the past few years.
“High season used to be from Easter to October, but this year traffic jams started a month early in Rome, and the calendar is already almost full until the end of December, which is very unusual,” Parla said. Told.
Seasonal changes are not just a European phenomenon. apple leisure groupoffers great value vacation packages in Mexico and the Caribbean, but over the past three years bookings have been spread out more evenly throughout the year. As a result, prices are more stable throughout the year.
In the August report, american campsite We found that 67% of campers changed their travel plans this year because of the weather. Almost 64% of campers who delayed their trips were planning to leave after Labor Day. RV rental platform RV share The company said bookings for the shoulder season are increasing at twice the pace of the dominant summer season, due to flexible working policies and efforts to avoid the intense heat.
Claire Ramsdell, 31, travels and works in customer service for an outdoor company. blog Thinking about hiking, she spent the summer in Bozeman, Montana, but it was too hot to drive to work and she had to rent an expensive accommodation with a roommate and poor Wi-Fi. I was forced to.
“I’m not sure why I decided to venture into such a popular and expensive destination this summer,” she wrote in an email from Colorado, where she plans to hike in the fall. . She says, “You should go back to off-season travel and less crowded places.”
school rules
According to Expedia’s recent travel forecasts, 70% of fall travelers will be adults without children.
Liana Ann Canning, 31, of Vancouver, Canada, said: “We have the flexibility to get the cheapest flights and hotels without sweating through the summer crowds and waiting in line at the Vatican.” “There’s a certain sexiness to it,” he says. Spend enough seasons with her husband.
For families with school-age children, the decision to avoid summer’s high prices and traffic jams is easier said than done, but some parents are considering workarounds.
Before the pandemic, Jennifer Gracek Ferguson, a mother of two, ages 5 and 8, from Weston, Conn., traveled with her family to France in the middle of a sweltering summer. I swore I would never make the trip again. Her family discourages her from missing too much school to travel because it is important for her to attend school and follow the curriculum, but she is willing to miss a few days. .
“Any chance to see something new and different that kids can learn from, I’m willing to take on the challenge,” said Ferguson, 53.
Sifino Kennedy of Lux Voyage said her family customers tend to add an extra day or two to a long weekend.
“Clients are calling with their school calendars in front of them, trying to make the most of their vacation,” she says, noting that she is no different. For Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 9, she plans to take her 9-year-old daughter to school for a few extra days and take a five-day trip to Sedona, Arizona, and the Grand Canyon.
Misty Bells, Vice President of Global Communications, Travel Agency Consortium masterpredicted that the reinstatement of school rules could lead to an increase in bookings in late spring, just as classes end.
“Typically travel doesn’t start in Europe until mid-June, but I think a lot of people will be trying to get there early before the heat takes effect,” Bells said.
“Secret” sales season
Business-wise, the reduction in booking calendar valleys is intentional. Travel marketers have long considered Costa Rica’s rainy but lush “green season” from May to November, and Napa Valley’s “cabernet season” from November to April, when conditions slow and restaurant reservations decline. has been postponed. french laundry It may be easier to catch.
Montreal en Lumière, an annual winter festival, was founded 25 years ago as a way to encourage travel to Canadian cities during the off-season. Last year, the 18-day midwinter festival attracted around 800,000 attendees to the ice rink and concerts. Participating restaurants were 96% booked.
To encourage off-season visits to Cape Cod, Pelham Hospitalitywhich operates three hotels, has introduced activities such as indoor roller skating. Chatham Birds Inn calls September and October “Secret Summer,” with a program that includes dinners at a nearby eight-acre farm.
“As a destination, it is important to minimize the occupancy ‘trough’ to sustain year-round employment to support tourism businesses and quality experiences for our travelers,” said General Manager Bill Lewis said. Magnolia Hotel & Spa Victoria, British Columbia resident and president of the Victoria Hotel Association said in an email.
Whether it’s the relative quiet, the trades or the weather, off-season conditions have become famous for themselves, director Andrew Lloyd said. Lloyd & Townsend Roseis an agency specializing in the rental of castles and mansions in the UK and Ireland.
“I don’t think there’s an off-season anymore,” he said, noting that special light draws photographers to Scotland during the winter months. “I’m always amazed at how crowded the field is during the so-called off-season, and ultimately I realized that the world is a very busy place right now.”
Downsizing during off-season
Crowd-averse die-hards like me will brave snowy Iceland, despite dangerous driving, and visit Homer, Alaska, in October when half the stores are closed. You can do things your way, quieter, cheaper and more locally.
“My love of off-season travel is rooted in frugality, but I also hate heat and would rather see the mountains when it’s 30 or 40 degrees than 80 or 90 degrees,” says author Heather. said Bien, 38. blogger The Washington, D.C.-based marketer plans to stay in a glamping tent in North Carolina in December.
For those who don’t have that kind of fortitude, it’s time to stop thinking about seasons in months and instead think in weeks, or even days. These micro-shoulders are still present in many places in his November except Thanksgiving week, in the first few weeks of December, and in his January and his February except at ski destinations.
For best results, avoid off-peak hours from Monday to Thursday.in Four Sisters Innis a collection of 17 boutique hotels in California with the lowest rates available midweek during the winter and early spring.
“The season for European New Shoulders is winter,” said founder Jonathan Alder. jonathan’s journeyTravel agency based in Winter Park, Florida. “If you want to go 30 to 50 percent cheaper and less crowded, go to Rome in January.”
At Lake Como in northern Italy, Grand Hotel Tremezzo It touts October as an ideal time to visit, when the weather is nice, crowds are more dispersed, and prices are less than half of high-season rates (starting at $825 per night, compared to $1,870 in the summer). But it’s for a short period of time. The hotel will close on November 5th for his 2023 season.
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