Travel Shows: Fuel Crisis Is Not a Drain Here

By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 6/12/2006

Escalating fuel prices have some travel show producers on edge. After all, anything that affects travel affects their shows.

Travel shows took a major hit after Sept. 11, as a reluctance to stray too far from home caused many Americans to turn inward. That was bad for travel industry shows, but good for home improvement events. Still, travel eventually rebounded.

But now comes news that this year's summer vacation will cost up to 36 percent more than last year's, according to a priceline.com report. Of all summer travel costs, priceline noted that fuel has experienced the most dramatic rise. And it has affected more than just the cost of filling up the tank of the family car. The average domestic airline ticket will cost up to 11.3 percent more than last year and the average hotel room 8 percent more, priceline found.

In MapQuest's summer survey, nearly three-quarters of those planning a road trip this year said gas prices would probably cause them to think twice about where they're going and for how long. Nearly one in 10 said they would cancel their trip altogether.

However, as potential vacationers spend more time researching travel options, they might turn to travel shows for advice.

Paul Muir of MSE Management produces the New York Times Travel Show, which attracted about 450 exhibiting companies and 10,000 attendees this year, as well as the Boston Globe Travel Show and the Miami Herald Travel Experience, all hybrid trade-public shows. He agreed that concerns about rising fuel costs are real, but other factors offset them.

"We recognize that there's been an increase in the price of fuel," Muir said. "Although our exhibitors are mostly tourism boards, we also have travel packagers, hotels and rental car companies that deal with smaller margins, and they will keep on exhibiting."

Those who travel overseas will continue to do so, especially with more worldwide destinations becoming accessible. There are more regional airlines everywhere, servicing destinations that weren't even promoted just a few years ago, offering more angles and packages. Plus, when it comes to regular travelers, few people return to destinations they've already visited. Instead, they go to shows like Muir's to find new ones.

"People take trips to feel better and to reward, educate and relax themselves," he said. "It's a feel-good thing."

Even when the state of the world is disturbing to many, for those who can afford it, travel is seen as a good antidote.

Justin Ross, show manager of Gay Life Expo — New York City for the expo division of HX Media, said his show is also a hybrid, but focuses on the consumer.

"We have seen show growth," Ross said. "Exhibitors feel our show is a vital one for them." The 2005 event, held last November at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, attracted 20,000 attendees and Ross sold all 325 available booths.

The show targets New York's gay community, Ross said, and "gays are more willing to be adventurous in travel. They're more willing to go to places like Brazil, for instance, than the average traveler. And they're more affluent. Gay households have an average $6,000 annually budgeted for travel."

For Alicia Evanko, manager of Questex Media Group's Luxury Travel Expo Las Vegas and Luxury Travel Expo New York, the only problem facing this year's New York show, a trade-public hybrid, was the high cost of New York hotel rooms. It's a different story for the Las Vegas trade-only show, she said, which is entering its eighth year and expects 550 exhibiting companies and 3,500 attendees.

Having survived the post-Sept. 11 slump, she said, travel shows are "on the upswing. The market is hot, it's booming, and it affects our show."