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Push to The Latest: No
SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., Aug.19, 2009-Although the Federal Reserve recently reported that the "economy is leveling off," data gathered and analyzed by the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP) shows that destination travel continues to struggle.

July's lodging business followed the winter pattern: occupancy was down 13.3 percent compared to July 2008, according to MTRiP. But that was slightly better than June, which was down 14 percent from a year earlier. Room rates in July 2009 were down 11.3 percent compared to last July. Reservations taken in July for arrivals in July-December were flat compared to last year for the same time period, although they were down for the months of November and December. This could be due to more consumers booking at the last minute; to illustrate this shift, short-lead bookings in July were up 30 percent compared to July 2008.

Ralf Garrison, author of the monthly MTRiP report, noted that "travel prices are 9.5 percent below 2008 levels, according to MTRiP comparisons for the past several years, but consumers are showing little regard for year to year variance in price," observed Garrison. "It appears that if demand isn't there, price alone won't motivate travelers."

He added, "To combat the decline in visitors and to provide incentives to prospective guests, destinations continue to decrease rates from last year-up to 21 percent for next December," he added.