May 25, 2022 5 min read

sandy davis

There have been people traveling, absolutely.

It has slowed down some. Airfare is out of sight now and gas. Renting cars. 

people are planning to do more this year than last year.

absolutely 

She said she’s not seeing much fear as a result of covid. I just came back from Europe and you would never know it. I was in five countries in 12 days and really you would never know it.

Right now the cost of everything air fare is out of sight. i was looking for Florida and air fare to Florida was $800. That’s crazy.

All the costs are going up. It’s just ridiculous.

Carl Brandtonies

We’re seeing more people going out, but the gas is going to start affecting it and air fares are starting to grow. We’re seeing people looking at car driving. They’re looking to book, but the air fares are starting to increase pretty good right now.

Very much so (people traveling more this year than last year)  

Fears of COVID reduced.

Jim garrity

More people are traveling. We’re going to have 1.2 million more people traveling. It’s almost 7 percent more than last year.

Even with gas prices in Pennsylvania at $4.77, which is $1.60 more expensive than this time last year. Despite those higher gas prices more people are traveling 

Consumers are ready to travel again, especially those who didn’t take a trip last year, maybe haven’t seen certain members of their friends for a couple years. They’re thinking to themselves, this is the year I’m going to get back out there

AAA pout a survey out at the end of February, how do you react to these higher gas prices. What we found is that around the $4 mark is when consumers would say I’m going to start making changes in my daily habits and behaviors so I can still prioritize things like travel, things like summer road trips vacations, going to see family and friends and maybe now more than ever for consumers who haven’t been able to do so over the last couple years. 

All the trends are pointing in the upward direction

This is the time when gas prices go up anyway because more people drive and demand goes up and summer blend gasoline has hit the market. Summer blend gasoline is more expensive to produce, there fore it’s more expensive to buy when we go to fill up at the pump.

For people who still do have those kinds of concerns, I can’t think of a better time in recent or long-term memory that it’s been better to work with a travel advisor

If you have reason to still be cautious about COVID, you have the ability to work that out and find something that’s in your comfort zone, something that works out for you and maybe for your doctor.

If your someone who’s not thinking about that as much as you used to you still want to be working with a travel advisor because of all the locales and destinations that are still changing their rules and regulations and availability. You want to have a professional, even just somebody you can consult on a road trip, who can walk you through the road trip and can give you a heads up about what you might be facing along the way     

if you’re booking trips they’re going to be able to get you the right travel insurance should if that should happen to pop up again. 

Our travel advisors have been very, very busy and a lot of the time it’s just people calling in and asking what’s available. The wanderlust is starting to take hold and the urge to go out and go anywhere, a lot of people are starting to feel that again.

It’s exciting to see. 

Lisa Cessna

Things dramatically increased during COVID. It has come back down a little bit.

based on today vs. five years ago absolutely. people have discovered the outdoors again. if the weekend turns out to be a beautiful weekend with the weather, I have no doubt that Mingo is going to be packed with people.

People just come to walk the trail. The playgrounds are usually bumping. 

We’ve gotten a lot more permits for Cross Creek for motorized boats that we never would see before. A lot of Kayaks, a lot of paddle boards. Way more on the lake than we’ve ever had in years past. It used to be just the fisherman’s lake, but now we have a lot of people doing some recreational activities that we never had seen before.

Shelter rentals.

You’d be hard pressed to find a shelter on the weekend throughout the summer. There are still some available during the week. We’re pretty much booked solid with all of our shelters on the weekends throughout the summer.

We know people are using the parks and it’s an investment the county can’t go wrong with 

COVID

I’m not seeing that as much now, because our programs we do offer a lot of programs in the park.

Summer camps the day camps didn’t fill up quite as quickly as they typically do We have wait lists now for some of our summer camps and a few of our day camps most of our programs are relatively full. It’s coming back. We’re starting people are not quite as apprehensive, especially at the parks because you’re outside. We’re getting field trips back. this is the first year we’ve had school field trips in two years at Mingo. The staff is pretty busy. It’s exciting. It seems like life might be coming back to normal or at least we’re learning to adjust.