Vacation? In this economy?

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1:26Jonquilyn Hill:I need a vacation. I'm talking about the type of vacation your phone service don't work. You can't reach nobody. Can't nobody reach you. It's really starting to become overpriced to travel through the states. I know we living in perilous times, but if you ain't got no money to go on a vacation, stay home. Okay, you guys, it's time to admit something. I'm really, really bad at taking time off work. The last time I took a week-long vacation was about a year ago. And I know I'm the walking cliche of the American with PTO who doesn't take it. But part of the reason why is that for something that's allegedly relaxing and fun, vacations are a lot of planning and even more money.

2:12Jonquilyn Hill:Plane tickets, hotels, food. And of course, I gotta buy that corny souvenir shot glass. I'm John Flynn Hill, and today on Explain It to Me from Vox, how to get that recharge you deserve, even if you're on a budget. So, am I alone in how difficult it is to get in a vacation these days? I asked Business Insider's Emily Stewart. It's a tricky year for vacation. How is me staying in a hotel for three nights more than my mortgage for the whole month? Out of principle, I'm not paying$800 to fly within the United States. It's literally insane to me. We're on years of inflation happening. And also we're in the midst of a moment with the war in Iran where oil prices are really high.

3:03And so what does that mean? That means gas prices are really high. That means flight prices are really high. That means even maybe your cruise might be a little more expensive. So a lot of people are looking around and they're pretty worried about prices. Now, that's not the only thing going on. This is breaking news. U.S. embassies across the Middle East are urging U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to the region. American tourists in Puerto Vallarta are now sheltering in place as flights out there get canceled. Earlier this year, also all of the stuff with TSA and the airports being a mess. It is in this country a horrible day to fly.

3:37Every time we check, the agony gets worse. Now 9 ,300 flights delayed nationwide. So a lot of people, I think, just this summer are kind of looking around and being like, oh, I want to go on vacation. But also, is this going to be a really expensive disaster?

3:53Jonquilyn Hill:How are travel companies responding to people who want to, you know, enjoy a vacation, but they're worried about money? The story, I feel like, of consumers, American consumers in the past, like, six years has been things are expensive and they're doing a lot of stuff anyway, right? And they're mad about it. They're mad about vacation, but they're taking vacation. And that is true now still to some extent. The Delta CEO recently said in their earnings report, like, we've raised prices, but we think that those prices have staying power. And he said he kind of feels like Delta is competing on service more than price now.

4:31Delta is not a low-cost airline. We can't win by trying to provide the cheapest. We have to be able to win by providing the best. United also said in their earnings, demand was really strong. Demand is strong for leisure. Demand is really strong across the board. I think the economy is doing well, probably better than people appreciate. And a lot of these travel companies, whether it be airlines, hotels, are really relying on loyalty programs to kind of get people in the door and say, you know, hey, here are all these perks and benefits. And they want you to book directly with them. So, you know, maybe you're like, I'm on the fence, but you're a Hilton member.

5:09You keep getting ads from them. That's hot. Totally. Hilton honors. You keep getting offers from them. And eventually you say, you know, fine, I'm going to go on vacation with them. But there's only so much I think some of these companies can give, or at least that they want to give that they're willing to give on price at the moment, especially with fuel costs being as high as they are.

5:29Jonquilyn Hill:Are vacations going to become a luxury item? I mean, a vacation by definition is a splurge, but are we getting to the point where only the wealthiest people can afford them? I mean, I don't know if I'd go as far as to call it a luxury item, but I do think it's becoming something that's segmented. A lot of in economic jargon, you hear sometimes about a K-shaped economy, right? Where it's like, it looks like the letter K, where one segment of people are going up and one segment of people are going down. And this doesn't necessarily mean super rich and everybody else, but it might mean like middle class, upper middle class going up, middle class, lower middle class going down.

6:08And I do think that we are a little bit in that situation right now with vacation. I was looking at a survey from earlier this year today, and it said that some Americans said they were planning a vacation this year, which is the lowest that they've seen in several years. But spending was up. So when people were on vacation, they were willing to splurge. And now some of that is people who can't afford it. Some of it is people who maybe are going to be paying off a credit card bill for a little bit longer than they would like. But I do think to some extent, you know, this has kind of been the story of the broader economy for, you know, a couple of years now where people who do have the means are doing OK.

6:48They are still spending. And the people who don't have the means are kind of looking for more ways to cut back.

6:53Jonquilyn Hill:You mentioned the unrest going on in the world and how that's impacting vacations. I'd love to dig into that a little more. What anxieties are people feeling? How is that factoring into how people are taking time off? America has not been playing super nice on a policy level with a lot of countries in the past couple of years, whether it be Europe, whether it be Canada. And so I do think some travelers have this question of like, will I be welcome? A recent survey by the European Travel Commission shows just 33 percent of Americans plan to visit Europe this summer. A 7 % drop from last year. Unease over how the U.S.

7:38is now perceived, cited as a reason for dampening enthusiasm. That moment when you go into a Northern Ireland bar and are immediately accused of being a bad person because you're from the United States doesn't feel very good. Last year I did a story on Americans kind of feeling a little bit anxious when they're traveling abroad. And I talked to one woman, I think she was from California, who had gone to Canada and was at a ski resort and was talking to a Canadian woman. The woman kind of got a little bit prickly about, you know, American-Canadian relations. And of course, this lady's like, I have nothing to do with it.

8:19But then she and her husband had asked for, you know, a recommendation on, I think, a ski slope or whatever. And the Canadian lady sent them down whatever path, recommended the path, and it was like a really bad path. And afterwards, she thought, like, did she do that on purpose to get back at us? Oh, my gosh. Which is, like, obviously very funny. She didn't know, but she said, you know, I wondered after. Was she mad at us? And, like, you know, forget you guys. Have fun on that bad ski path. So this isn't necessarily, like, a new situation. But I do think some Americans are kind of having this feeling of, you know, will I be super welcome abroad?

8:53even though I do think most people understand that not everybody, every citizen's politics are the same as the federal government's politics.

9:08Jonquilyn Hill:Are there places people are choosing not to travel to right now for whatever reason? A lot of popular international destinations have been kind of Americaned out in the past few years. you think about places like Japan, Spain, Italy, have started to be like, hey guys, why don't you try staying home instead of all of you coming to the exact three cities and kind of ruining everything. At least their citizens have been a little frustrated. Residents of Mallorca are fed up with mass tourism. The streets of the Balearic Island filled with protesters over the weekend saying the area has reached a limit in capacity and resources.

9:43This is Kyoto Today. Overcrowded streets. frustrated residents, and things like vandalism and litter becoming commonplace throughout the city. Kyoto's infrastructure simply can't keep up. I was looking at data from this aviation analytics company called Sirium, and what they had found was that travel from the U.S. to major destination in Europe was down about 6 % this year compared to last for the month of July, but it's also a lot of people do not want to come here. Number one reason why people are avoiding the U.S. is the political situation. They don't want to endorse the U.S.'s politics. We are feeling the Trump slump because of the policies and the war that he's kind of essentially brought on.

10:31Those things have really affected our business and slowed it down. Travel from Europe was down like 9 % from last year. And so it really is kind of a two-way street at this point. And some of it is people not wanting to come here because they're worried about you being stopped at the border. being stopped at the airport, being stopped by ICE. So they're just like not feeling welcome in the U.S. right now. It's also kind of important to point out because so many foreign tourists are not coming to the States right now, that might mean that some popular destinations kind of have a little more space, a little less lines.

11:07Think about the Grand Canyon. You think about Disney. Like, it might be nice to kind of go to one of those places. And this doesn't mean, again, that everybody's just staying close to home. But I do think it's kind of one of those summers where it's not a bad idea to see what's a little bit more in striking distance and see what you can do.

11:31Jonquilyn Hill:So a tighter budget doesn't mean you have to skip out on that beloved PTO. The solution might just be a tried and true American tradition. That's next.

12:00Jonquilyn Hill:Support for Explain It To Me comes from Fetch Pet Insurance. Here's something that might surprise you. Every six seconds, a pet owner in the U.S. gets hit with a vet bill over$1 ,000. dollars. That's according to a study from a pet insurance company. Be prepared with Fetch Pet Insurance. Fetch is the most complete coverage for dogs and cats, according to consumeradvocate.org. Fetch covers accidents, illnesses, diagnostics, and more. Every vet in the U.S. and Canada is in network. You can build a plan that fits your budget, and once approved, claims are paid back in as little as two days. To learn more, go to fetchpet.com slash save.

12:41Jonquilyn Hill:That's fetchpet.com slash save.

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14:04Jonquilyn Hill:I'm J.Q. Back with more Explain It To Me. Susan Rue is the author of the book, Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations. She also teaches history at Brigham Young University, and she just got back from her very own vacation. So I went down to Arches National Park with three of my grandchildren and their parents. and believe it or not, yesterday morning, I got up at 5 a.m. and hiked to the top of Delicate Arch to see the sunrise. Oh my gosh, that sounds beautiful. It was beautiful. It was a three-mile hike and it was up all the way, but I'm okay today. But it's wonderful to do.

14:46Jonquilyn Hill:And lots of people were there from all over the world. That seems like a classic American vacation. Tell me about how national parks became so popular. Going to the national parks was a very economical vacation for people. They could rent and borrow camping equipment. You could take your children to see these wonders of the world. East or west, north or south. In fact, I think it was the birth of our modern ecological movement with the advent of the National Park travel by families. The awe-inspiring wonders of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Mighty Niagara. The sparkling waters of the Atlantic.

15:30The National Parks are America's cathedrals. Isn't America wonderful? And art vacation is wonderful, too.

15:39Jonquilyn Hill:Yeah, what's the timing for the popularity of national parks? They became hugely popular after the war, and the family vacation became popular then, in part because of consumerism. A lot of people were making money and moving to the suburbs and driving in cars. The National Federal Highway Act was announced in 1956. Very quickly, 1 ,600 miles of highways all over the country. So people could leave their driveways or their apartments or their city parking place and get in the car and go anywhere in America for pretty cheap cost. 28 cents a gallon for gas. That was a long time ago. Oh, my gosh. 28 cent gas feels like a totally different world.

16:26Jonquilyn Hill:Can you describe how important the automobile was for the American vacation through the years? It was hugely important. car ownership rose station wagons peaked in 1956 today we have suvs but back in the day we would just get thrown in the car sometimes they would put a blanket over the suitcases and the children could sprawl out a car could be had for two thousand dollars and as vacations and traveling became more popular roadside businesses became more popular howard johnson's in the east

17:06and McDonald's.

17:13One of the great inventions of the era was Disneyland, 1955. And also motels. Motels were really popular. Holiday Inn was invented. So that's where you would, in your car, pull right up to the door and unload. So that's all car-centered, the food, the lodging, the driving. It's all centered around the automobile.

17:39Jonquilyn Hill:Is there something about the road trip that's uniquely American? The fact that we have this idea in America that we have freedom of the road, that we can at will go and explore. Of course, it was not true for many vacationers. It was not at all true for African-American vacationers in this time period. They were severely restricted to travelers from the South who came North. Back in the old day, when dark comes, you don't want to be caught over here after six o 'clock. You want to be on this side of the tracks. Three or four times a year, I would go back and forth to Georgia. But I knew I wasn't supposed to stop at night to buy any gas or do anything, not even to use the bathroom.

18:23Black people had to stay in segregated conditions. Many people are familiar with the Green Book, which was a guide for African American travelers throughout the South and throughout the nation. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication, for then we can go wherever we please and without embarrassment. But until that time comes, we shall continue to publish this information for your convenience each year. But segregation, while it was legal in the South, it was practiced in other places in the country. You would find segregated restaurants and hotels throughout the nation, and most prominently in Washington, D.C., where many people wanted to take their children.

19:08And those barriers began to be broken by veterans, African-American veterans who had served in World War II. And the NAACP, you know, had 400 ,000 members by then, and people began to write in, and the NAACP began to file suit. It was a very different experience for those travelers. It's a shameful history.

19:34Jonquilyn Hill:So we have kind of this golden age of the road trip, you know. When did that change? When did we stop doing that? I think it hit its peak in the 60s in terms of road travel. I think competition from airlines and an increased push to travel overseas. the hard stop where I end my study is in 1973 with the Arab oil embargo. The immediate shortage will affect the lives of each and every one of us. In our factories, our cars, our homes, our offices, we will have to use less fuel than we are accustomed to using. And I think, of course, this has echoes of today. When gasoline's hard to get and oil prices go up, then people don't travel as much.

20:21and by then the age of the family vacation as the primary vacation was kind of waning and there began to be these couples getaways so the tenor of the vacation changed in terms of promotion and these vacations were promoted by the oil companies and the auto companies and the sales of cars and we don't have that dominant in auto industry like we did in the 50s and 60s as families change, vacations change. Families are smaller. Today, women have jobs that they didn't in those days. So vacations are probably shorter. So time is more precious, I think. But on the other hand, people can work while they're on vacation, which is probably not a great idea, but they can.

21:11I think why people vacation remains much the same. They want to learn about their country. They want to show their children the country. It's also a great way to spend money and come home and brag about it. Back in the day, they would show slides. Now we just put up on Instagram. How many people do you know who are putting vacation shots on Instagram, right?

21:35Jonquilyn Hill:Oh, everybody. I'm going to do it. Sure, sure. So it's a way of asserting your own status. And it's a way of showing your wealth and what you can do and your experiences. So I think being together with the people that you love and just exploring. You get to swim in a swimming pool. You get to eat fast food. Fun. It's a change from the routine. And that's what vacations have always been, a change from the routine.

22:06Jonquilyn Hill:Coming up, how to change that routine without booking a hotel.