Allie Snyder
Mr. Reuter
22 March 2015
Econ A2
Cost Increase for Easter Break
As spring break is coming up for all colleges and high schools, many people are traveling throughout the country. If it is cold where you live or go to school, the odds are that you are going to travel to somewhere warm. There are a few destinations that are popular during this time of the year. These places would be Florida, California, Hawaii, and Mexico. In order to get to these destinations there are costs that are involved. The price for airline tickets if people travel by air, the hotels and resorts, and even amusement parks all rise majorly for this time of year. Since it is common to travel for easter break and Christmas break, these holidays cause prices to increase by a lot however the costs are inelastic because the demand for hotels and airlines stay the same.
According to Spring Travel Forecast “the costs of air travel is at more demand and the budget for airfare continues to rise 18.7 percent since last year”. Also the rates of the hotels remain to soar in the large known coastal cities (Spring). When people travel to Hawaii for this week, the statistics show that “the resort prices rise 20.1 percent for easter week” (Maui). This would be an additional $316.04 for every room. If you are heading to Mexico any other week than Easter and Christmas the rates of the resorts will be 20-50% lower than those times of the year (Frommers). Holidays are the times that everyone is off school so it is the primary time to go anywhere. Eventually a shortage of rooms and places to stay occurs, and the renters for that week pay the consequences of higher prices. “Flight prices and hotel prices immediately before or after such a peak holiday period may be relatively cheap” (USA), says USA Today; however it is more convenient for people to go on the holiday weeks.
Disney resorts for example increased their prices from about $125 a night in end of January into mid February, to almost $250 a night for Easter and Christmas week. From looking at the graph you can see that the months the resort costs peaked, were at the end of March and end of December. No matter where you go or travel during this time of year, the consumer tastes will not change on where they want to go to get away. Therefore the price of everything will increase to benefit the sellers. So maybe next spring break try to talk to your family and friends on trying to do whatever you can to decrease the price of your trip the most; even if it means taking a trip a different week, it could save you a lot of money.
Allen, Jae. "The Cheapest Time of Year for Airline Travel." Travel Tips. Cheapest Time of Year for Air Travel, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
International, Western. "Best Western Prices for the Holidays." Best Western Deals. Best Western, 19 Dec. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
"Maui Hotel Rates Soar 20%, Hawaii Rates Rise 12% Statewide during Easter Week - Pacific Business News." Pacific Business News. American City Business Journals, 11 Jan. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
“When to Go." In Mexico. Frommer Media, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
It is more cost effective to raise prices during these times as prices and more employees will need to be working to keep up with the increase in demand of the rooms.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to be conscious of how vacation prices change when there is holiday season. It irks me that the times when people are able to take vacations is when prices go up, but if I was a hotel owner I would totally do it as well. People will continue going on vacations no matter the costs, so it is a smart move from hotels and airlines and parks to increase their prices to take advantage of a luxury people are willing to take no matter the negative externalities of these, just like the great amounts of money spent for just a week in a beach.
ReplyDeleteThis is the perfect topic for the upcoming Spring Break! Great job incorporating a graph to help display trends in the data. Also, you did a nice job incorporating lots of data regarding price increase or decreases. I think if you proofread your essay and included more economics vocabulary, then your essay would be close to perfect. Do you think that hotels are really inelastic?
ReplyDeleteYour post is timely since next week is spring break. I feel that hotels and flights could raise the cost to whatever they want and like you pointed it out would remain inelastic. Essentially, there is no price ceiling for cost of travel during spring break. I think it would be interesting to see how many people go south from the north and who travels to the north. Then between which city has the most increase in revenue over spring break.
ReplyDeleteThe is a good topic to bring up since it is rapidly approaching. Economics is the defiantly the key factor in planning a spring break getaway. From the price of the hotel or resort room. To the price of gas if driving or price of the airline ticket. Flying in an airplane for the first time last summer it was easily seen how expensive an airline ticket can be. The ticket from Denver to Milwaukee probably costed around a $100 just for a one way ticket. Agree that id hotels and airline companies like Southwest, American Airlines, and Frontier Airlines were to raise there prices for a room or ticket it will still remain inelastic. Also with traveling places you also have to take money with you for some novelties or clothes which all can add up. Also I do agree that some times they do have a shortage of rooms. Overall, good job relating this to economics.
ReplyDeleteIt irks me that every year I spend my spring break at home. Despite my lack of knowledge of the spring break experience you have a very plausible blog post about the economics of Spring Break. I am flummoxed at how much money hotels and airlines will make. I will have to verify with my parents if I am going anywhere for Spring Break this year, but their response will probably be succinct, a quick no.
ReplyDeleteWith our spring break coming up quickly, and other schools just ending or beginning, this is a great topic for the time. The amount of people that go to places like Cancun or Panama is insane, and its the same thing every year for popular spring break destinations. This is probably the most busy few weeks all year, so it would only make sense to jack up the prices, because if the demand for that hotel or flight is so high, you mind as well make the most out of it with higher costs.
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