Cathy Balestriere was expecting \u201cespecially low\u201d bookings last month at Crane\u2019s Beach House, the boutique hotel she manages in Delray Beach, Florida. Instead, they jumped 12% from the year before. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like a miracle based on where we were sitting just a few weeks ago,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a miracle. It\u2019s the weather.<\/p>\n
The surge coincided with a sweltering mid-June heat wave across the Midwest and the Northeast, putting over 80 million people under heat alerts \u2014 the latest run of unseasonably extreme temperatures fueled by a global climate that is warming at a record pace.<\/p>\n
There is no question that we are seeing a growing preference for destinations with more comfortable summer temperatures.<\/p>\n
Jesse Neugarten, CEO of Dollar Flight Club<\/cite><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Florida might not be the first destination that comes to mind for people looking to beat the heat, but it\u2019s where some headed after their hometowns became just as sweltering.<\/p>\n This time of year, most guests at Crane\u2019s are in-state or regional travelers, Balestriere said. But many of the surprise last-minute bookings came from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas. Delray Beach has been hot, too, but visitors to the hotel \u201ccan at least enjoy the ocean breeze and access to the beach and refreshing pools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a similar story at the Lake Nona Wave Hotel in Orlando, where reservations soared 45% in the past three weeks compared with the year before, largely from the Northeast and Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had a couple of guests mention while they are checking in that the heat at home is unbearable,\u201d sales and marketing director James Tattersall said.<\/p>\n \u201cSnowbirds\u201d typically head south to Florida and other balmier states in the winter and spring, creating a high season there when it\u2019s frigid up north. But Crane\u2019s Beach House now sees a growing opportunity in warmer months. It has already shifted its seasonal editorial calendar, Google ad strategy and newsletter messaging to capture more of the off-season demand, Balestriere said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s part of a broader change that has been underway for years as tourist hot spots adapt to shifting demand tied to evolving seasonal weather.<\/p>\n While not every place is feeling an impact in the same way, or at all, \u201cthere is no question that we are seeing a growing preference for destinations with more comfortable summer temperatures alongside rising global temperatures,\u201d said Jesse Neugarten, founder and CEO of Dollar Flight Club, a travel deal alert service.<\/p>\n From May to June, the platform had a 31% surge in flight bookings and interest from Northern cities like New York and Boston to destinations in Florida, he said, \u201cwhere travelers are looking for relief from heat waves.\u201d<\/p>\n Scorching weather at home is also pushing people toward cooler climes abroad. While hotel bookings in Italy \u2014 a longtime summer hot spot \u2014 are up a modest 3% since last year, \u201cit\u2019s Scandinavia that is having a moment,\u201d researchers at the Virtuoso luxury travel network said in a recent report.<\/p>\n Bookings in the region have surged 25% since last year, with even steeper 49% and 47% increases in Iceland and Sweden, respectively. Even the Netherlands, where authorities have tried to reduce tourist volumes, is seeing 33% higher hotel demand this season, Virtuoso found. <\/p>\n \u201cI decided I had enough of Washington, D.C., summers,\u201d said Andy Knestaut, 59, a retiree who was considering a trip with his wife somewhere in South America before they opted for northern Europe. \u201cWe chose Copenhagen and added two Baltic countries. We\u2019ll go from late July to late August.\u201d<\/p>\n Some parts of the continent are getting so hot during the summer that the typical high season is getting longer, said Rebecca Masri, founder and CEO of Little Emperors, a private members luxury hotel club.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the weather in southern Europe staying warm, booking trends are shifting to September, October and even November,\u201d she said, as some hotels and resorts that usually close at the end of the summer extend their operations. \u201cThese months are becoming the new peak season.\u201d<\/p>\n Consumers will increasingly see those shifts reflected in pricing, said Chris Lafakis, a director at Moody\u2019s Analytics.<\/p>\n \u201cYou won\u2019t have to be rich to vacation, but it\u2019s going to be more expensive to travel to the more favorable destinations,\u201d he said. \u201cThose with the means to do so will be able to, and those that don\u2019t will unfortunately not have as many options to fall back on.\u201d <\/p>\n With the weather in southern Europe staying warm, booking trends are shifting to September, October and even November.<\/p>\n Rebecca Masri, CEO of Little Emperors<\/cite><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n As airlines have added capacity, domestic and international airfares have fallen by double-digit percentages this July Fourth holiday week compared with last year\u2019s, according to booking platform Hopper, despite record expected travel volumes. But while average hotel room rates in some cooler northern European countries have stabilized since last year\u2019s surge, they\u2019re climbing in popular areas \u2014 up 18% in Iceland and 47% in Norway, Virtuoso said. <\/p>\n Weather-driven shifts in travel patterns will create economic winners and losers, Lafakis said. \u201cProbably 20% to 30% of the overall damage to the economy from the heat is because of less travel tourism,\u201d he said. As seasonal temperatures soar, would-be visitors \u201cmay go somewhere else or choose not to go at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Some industry experts aren\u2019t so worried.<\/p>\n During hot weather, \u201ctravelers will usually change their behavior rather than cancel a trip,\u201d said Tiffany Townsend, a spokesperson for New York City Tourism and Conventions. \u201cThey might visit more museums and indoor attractions or do more shopping\u201d while it\u2019s scorching outside and schedule outdoor activities early or late in the day.<\/p>\n Heather Dickie, 69, a Texas-based marketing consultant, said her travel itinerary is still in flux, but she said she needs a break from the heat. \u201cIf I can get out of Dallas,\u201d where temperatures have already hit triple digits, \u201cAlaska is sounding good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But she\u2019s more likely to head about 650 miles \u201cup the road a bit\u201d toward Taos, New Mexico, for the relative reprieve of highs in the mid-80s. \u201cI have friends in that area,\u201d she said, \u201cand am looking at late July or August for a nice, cool getaway.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cathy Balestriere was expecting \u201cespecially low\u201d bookings last month at Crane\u2019s Beach House, the boutique hotel she manages in Delray Beach, Florida. Instead, they jumped 12% from the year before. \u201cIt feels like a miracle based on where we were sitting just a few weeks ago,\u201d she said. It\u2019s not a miracle. It\u2019s the weather. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}