Gas Prices and Leisure Travel

Sure, we all bemoan the fact that gas prices rise each summer or holiday travel season, and some people may even say that rising prices play a role in making decisions regarding travel. But the truth is that few people actually follow through on their claims to adjust their travel due to gas prices.

There is plenty of evidence to support that belief, and the best gauge is hotel occupancy. As of November, hotel occupancy in Missouri was up 2.3 percent from the same time a year ago. This amid one of the most fluctuating gas price periods in recent history. Revenue generated per available room was up 7 percent over the past year in Missouri and was up 6.2 percent nationwide over the same period. What does that mean? It means more people were willing to pay more money for hotel rooms despite high gas prices. That certainly would seem to buck the reports that gas prices affect leisure travel.

There's a reason for this. While gas prices do affect the wallet, they don't affect it as much as people think. Let's illustrate this thought.

The average mid-size SUV has a 22-gallon tank and gets 15-20 miles per gallon. For the sake of this review, let's say 15 miles per gallon. That means a tank of gas will take the vehicle a little more than 330 miles. Again, for the sake of this exercise, let's round the number down to 300 miles. A 1,000-mile round trip (most families probably don't travel that far) would require four full tanks of gas. If gas prices rose 20 cents, it would cost an additional $4.40 cents to fill the vehicle up or $17.60 to fill it up four times for the entire trip. If gas prices rose 50 cents (a pretty astronomical increase), it would cost an additional $11 to fill the tank or $44 for the entire trip. You see where this is going. Even if prices rose as much as a dollar per gallon, it would still only cost an additional $88 to fill that vehicle for the entire trip. That's about the cost of an average hotel room.

A friend of mine once said that we Americans consider travel and leisure to be "a precious commodity." We'll do without a lot of things before we give up our leisure time, even if we sometimes won't admit it.