Scaling Back Your Summer?

Survey Results as of 6/29/2010:

This year, my summer vacation plans are:

The important number here, folks, is that 80 percent of our poll participants this week are doing no vacations this year, or are sticking to scaled-back versions for their time-off plans. This certainly isn't surprising. In fact, the latest consumer confidence index, released yesterday, reported in lower than expected, indicating that Americans continue to tread cautiously this summer.  

Still, while people in our industry are understandably holding spending closer to the vest, there may be more summertime activity on the horizon than our poll would indicate. According to this report:
"...[C]onsumer spending could pick up during the summer. Last week, the Access America Summer Vacation Survey showed that 6 million more U.S. households planned to take vacations during the summer, adding $7 billion in summer vacation spending for a total of $76 billion this year."

I still haven't decided for sure, but I've been in the industry long enough—and thus just cautious enough—that I think I'm joining the 80 percent in opting for the conservative route.

Contact Christina Lewellen, senior editor, at clewellen@glass.org.