TORONTO - Despite tough economic times, six in 10 Canadians are still planning to pack their bags for a summer vacation, but the majority of those travellers will be spending their holiday close to home, a new poll suggests.
The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey found that among the 59 per cent planning to take a holiday, 61 per cent are making their summer vacation more of a staycation.
Of those making plans, 26 per cent intend to vacation near the town or city where they already live, while 35 per cent said they planned to stay within their home province. Only 18 per cent plan to travel outside Canada.
"My impression of the situation is that people are going to continue to take their vacations but they're going to find a way of scaling back the expenditure on those vacations, whatever type they decide to take," said Harris-Decima senior vice-president Jeff Walker.
"It's going to be the kind of vacation where you go to visit a cottage or friend's cottage or maybe a family's cottage, or maybe you go for a long weekend to a resort in whatever part of the country you live."
Of those travelling, 54 per cent said they would be spending around the same amount on summer vacations this year compared to last; however, 29 per cent said they would be shelling out less.
Minnow Hamilton, managing editor and co-founder of SavvyMom Media, which operates online resource savvymom.ca, said they found comparable results in a similar poll they conducted this year.
"Families all said, `We're still taking our holiday but we might go closer, we might not fly, we might find ways to have a less expensive holiday,"' said Hamilton, a mother of two sons, ages 12 and 10.
"We also just know that whether you're in the middle of an economic crisis or not, families are getting in the car and they're driving in the summer."
"It's part of life with young children, whether you're visiting friends or you have your own cottage or you're driving to visit family in another city -- you're getting in the car and you're driving, whether it's two hours or eight hours."
Travelzoo Canada recently launched its weekly summer staycation guide featuring online listings of travel deals within Canada.
General manager Mandy Gresh said in some cities and regions, hoteliers are even creating specials or offering discounts to entice local residents to stay over.
"I think this summer, maybe people are being a little bit tighter with their budget, but you put the right deal in front of them and they're going to jump to take advantage of that," she said.
"I don't know if people necessarily have to put aside a huge budget to do it, but maybe instead they're deciding to cut back on doing local activities to then instead take a two-hour drive and go somewhere for a weekend."
While a turbulent economic climate doesn't appear to be leading most Canadians to abandon summer travel plans, the poll suggests age and income are key drivers in the decision to take vacations.
Individuals under the age of 35 and over the age of 50 were less likely to be making vacation plans, as were those with incomes less than $60,000.
In the case of the age 65-plus category, Walker said there is "definitely a dimension" of being retired and on a fixed income that factors in.
"We've seen that group of people scale back substantially in terms of the kinds of vacations they might be spending because, frankly, many of them lost significant amounts of money in the stock market over the last six months, so their ability to have some flexibility has diminished a little bit."
Last summer, soaring fuel prices across Canada likely put a crimp on plans for many considering road trips. But with lower prices this time around, Walker said there isn't as much pressure on that front.
"I think that's probably even part of why more people are sort of driving to wherever it is they're going to take their vacations, but another part of this I think that's important is that many Canadians believe that gas prices are going to go back up again within the next year or so," he said.
"There may be some people saying, `I want to take a driving vacation this year, because I think this will be a year where gas prices will be relatively reasonable."'
The telephone survey of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted between June 4 and June 8 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
