Closer-to-home for the holidays
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(CNN) -- The holidays are typically a time for joyous celebrations, as well as indigestion, staggering credit card bills and long lines at overtaxed airports. But as with everything else in America, this holiday season may be different.
While many Americans still plan to take a trip during the Thanksgiving or Christmas break, most are not expected to travel as far or to celebrate as boisterously as in previous years.
The lure of big-city light displays, European Christmas markets and exotic cruise ports hold less appeal than the thought of quietly retreating with loved ones.
"People seem to be more interested in getting away from crowds and larger metropolitan destinations. Guest ranches, lodges and private getaways are more in demand," said Keith Waldon, director of public relations for Virtuoso, a network of upscale travel agents.
"People are looking for peaceful, restorative type of environments. It's probably partly for safety and partly for sanity," he said.
"They would all like to be somewhere with their families. A strong family thing is coming out of this," said Kathleen Argabright, an AAA travel agent in Boise, Idaho.
"In the past there's been more international travel but, of course, that's not big this year. A lot of people want to go to Hawaii because that seems safe to them."
Cruise lines are trying to accommodate the desire of many Americans to stay closer to home by moving their ports from the Mediterranean to Mexico and the Caribbean, Argabright said.
Few of her clients are interested in spending the holidays "back East," she said.
Christmastime in the city
New York City's holiday attractions are normally such huge draws that visitors must plan months in advance if they hope to find a hotel vacancy.
But in the wake of the World Trade Center attack, Manhattan's sidewalks are not expected to be jammed with the usual crowds of holiday tourists.
"Anyone rejecting a holiday trip to a big city on the grounds of security, I think, is making a big mistake," said Mark Orwoll, managing editor of Travel & Leisure magazine.
"The cities have as much to offer as they ever have and many of the big hotels are offering dramatic discounts," he said.
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Orwoll, who watched the World Trade Center disaster unfold from the window of his Manhattan office, said he plans to stick to the usual New York traditions of taking his children to see the giant tree at Rockefeller Center and "enjoy the wonderful feeling of Christmas."
"This city is so strong, so vital, it's able to revive from something like that and that in itself is a reason for celebration," he said.
A wait-and-see attitude
While travel agents say that few of their clients who had planned domestic holiday trips before September 11 have canceled them, new bookings are slow.
Airlines have broken tradition by offering discount rates through the holiday season in an attempt to lure travelers back into the skies. But a wait-and-see attitude prevails because of concerns about security as well as the economy.
"We are seeing people saying that they are waiting to book their holiday travel thinking that prices will be lower," said Marilyn Stanek, owner of Bee Line Travel Service in Green Valley, Arizona.
"I have clients talking about driving to their winter homes in Florida this year instead of flying," said Roslyn Crandus, a travel agent with Beale Travel Service in Chicago.
"I don't recall Americans being so afraid of travel except during the millennium celebrations. Everybody was thinking something was going to happen. It scared them terribly, but the inflated prices were what scared me."
By contrast, this holiday season is full of travel bargains, allowing people on a budget to have the kind of vacation they could not otherwise afford, Crandus said.
"There are some great opportunities for people. It's a good time to make some dreams come true and we could all use some dreams right now."
'This is our new life'
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Well-seasoned travelers seem to be the ones most eager to get going again.
"Thanksgiving and Christmas are great inspirations to get back on the road," said Don George, the global travel editor for Lonely Planet, a publisher of adventure travel books based in Berkeley, California.
George took an informal poll of Lonely Planet staffers and found that 57 out of 60 were planning to take holiday trips. Most of them plan to fly to destinations within the United States. But many are also heading to Mexico.
"I think because it's cheap and easy, both in terms of time and psychologically," George said. "It doesn't take long to get there and you're not flying over any oceans."
A Californian who booked a cruise to Australia and New Zealand over Christmas canceled right after September 11, said Brian Robertson of Robertson International Travel Consultants in Carpinteria, California.
Robertson said he told his nervous client: "This is our new life and travel is going to be under severe security and ongoing State Department advisories for years to come. There is no sense in waiting for the 'all-clear' horn."
The client rebooked.
