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After the travel industry experienced their bottoming-out approximately 5 years back, it's been gaining steam since. If there is a downturn in the economy, travel and more than that vacations are one of the first things people scale back on. But as consumer confidence year-by-year has increased, people are about to take that trip they were putting off. It's expected that for 2014 there will be an uptick of about 2% of individuals vacationing, with accommodation rates also showing about a 2% increase from a year ago. This is an appreciated development in an industry that's long been in the doldrums. Employment within the travel and tour industries has also been increasing, as it revealed in the fourth quarter of 2013 of nearly 3% increase on top of the previous year. For all of 2013 the industry showed a 2.2% increase; and also this on top of an increase of 2.7% for 2012. It's outperformed over-all employment rates nationally through that period. An additional area that bodes well for buyer confidence is the average time period of trips. This coming summer time the average trip is expected to last about 10 days, and that is a major leap over those seven day trips of last summer. All of the indications of improved travel tend to be up. Hotel accommodations are typically the main tip-off, but many are also spending a little extra for their hotel rooms in addition to upgrading on airline travel. And also the cruise market is also seeing more visitors, including cabin upgrades. With regards to cruise lines, the Cruise Lines International Association including its 63 member lines report that they are going to be operating 410 ships for 2014, which is up by 17 over the prior year. This industry certainly believes the trend will carry on, as during the next couple of years an additional 24 new ships are going to be brought out. A few other things which we'll be seeing in the future within the cruise industry which should no doubt entice additional travelers are: 1. Luxury cruise lines seem to be gaining a rising share of the market. 2. More use of all-inclusive possibilities and packages. 3. More vessels are going to out-of-the-typical locations, such as exotic rivers, world cruises, Antarctica, the Middle East plus trans-pacific cruises. 4. Additional first time cruise travelers are going to be younger generation travelers, most notably Millennial's. A lot of improvements are taking place in all modes of travel, with unique destinations becoming more and more well-liked. Technology will become a much greater part of it, as travelers, even though they're on vacation never like to be far from the Internet. We will have more and more access to technology as time goes by. Check out our two travel websites for information on Europe http://bestvacationeurope.com and Florida http://whattoseeinflorida.com. Jim O'Connell is a writer and avid traveler living in Chicago.
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