NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
The travel industry will show its broadest gains this year since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit demand for both business and vacation travel, according to a published report.
The Los Angeles Times, citing a study by the Travel Industry Association of America that's due out Friday, said the study will estimate expenditures of $592.6 billion on U.S. travel this year, up 6.9 percent from 2003. The newspaper said it will be the first time since 2000 that all segments of the industry will report gains.
The newspaper also pointed to strong travel-related gains in profits reported Monday from American Express Co. (Research) and Hilton Hotels Corp. (Research) as signs of the turnaround.
While the U.S. airline industry has been hit by staggering losses brought on by higher fuel prices, domestic airline passenger volume is up almost 5 percent year to date, to 363 million passengers, according to the travel association. That's still down 11 percent from four years ago, however.
International air travel, both to and from the United States, is ahead of 2000 levels. Passenger volume on international flights is up 15.4 percent to 44 million, according to the newspaper, helped by international travelers attracted here by the lower value of the dollar.
Part of the problem for airlines is continued low fares and the difficulty in raising prices to cover higher fuel costs. But Bobby Bowers, a spokesman for Smith Travel Research in Hendersonville, Tenn., told the Times that the lodging industry is seeing rate increases, helped by the lack of building in recent years, which has kept room inventory low.
He said industrywide revenue per available room is up 7.5 percent nationally through the first nine months of this year after having declined in the first nine months of each of the last three years.
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