Vacationers look closer to home

Travel costs, exchange rates make excursions less grand for many

Barcelona is out, the Berkshires are in. Even Los Angeles will be too expensive as New Englanders feeling the pinch of the economy downsize summer vacation plans.

Put off by soaring airfares, record-high fuel prices, and weak exchange rates in Europe and Canada, more Americans are staying home - or closer to it. As a result, some New England vacation spots - from Bar Harbor inns in Maine to Old Sturbridge Village and Cape Cod in Massachusetts - already are seeing an increase in business. And tourism officials are launching advertising campaigns to remind residents of the inexpensive summer excursions available in their own backyards.

According to a national telephone survey of 1,018 adults conducted by GfK Roper Consulting last month, 39 percent do not plan to go on an overnight trip at least 100 miles from home before the end of September, up from 34 percent in 2005. "The 500-mile trip is going to become 250 or less - getting away but staying relatively close to home," said GfK senior consultant John Bishop.

Vacations certainly have become more expensive - starting with surging airfare. Roundtrip flights to Europe are at least $150 more than last summer, according to Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, a Dallas-based consumer airline ticket research website. Last week, the cheapest prices for July flights between Boston and London were up 29 percent to $915, while flights to Paris were up 40 percent to $1,250.

Even US vacations are pricier. Domestic airfare on average costs 14 percent more than last summer, according to FareCompare.com: As of last week, the best July fares between Boston and Los Angeles or Seattle flitted to $365 or $400, respectively - 36 percent or 26 percent more than last year.

That has prompted some travelers to vacation closer home.

Sang and Karen Hwang wanted to take their two toddlers to the San Diego Zoo and Legoland California this summer, but airfare would cost the family at least $1,000. So instead, they'll play on a beach somewhere between Maine and New Jersey.

"We'll keep it within the New England region, the drive-to destinations," said Sang Hwang, a 37-year-old consultancy managing director from North Grafton.

Soaring expenses also changed the travel habits of Peter and Ellen Leepson, who jetted off to Europe the past three years. This summer, the Millburn, N.J., couple will just drive to the Berkshires, where they're renting a house for seven weeks because the weakening US dollar made them tense during last year's weeklong trip to Barcelona.

"After my first dinner there, I thought I was going to have to call my mortgage broker to pay for the meal," said Peter Leepson, a 66-year-old lawyer. "Everything was getting very expensive."

This money-saving shift has boosted business at some New England destinations, including Old Sturbridge Village, a museum 60 miles west of Boston that showcases the early-1800s way of life. Attendance between January and April spiked 33 percent this year compared to a year ago, with a surge from New Englanders more than offsetting the lower turnout of visitors from the South and West. The museum expects the higher attendance to hold throughout the summer, so it has hired four more people, said spokeswoman Ann Lindblad.

Cape Cod also is benefiting. HomeAway.com, a website that lists more than 2,800 homes available for vacation rental on the Cape, has seen inquiries during the last 90 days jump 31 percent compared with the same time last year, said spokeswoman Eileen Buesing.

At the two Appalachian Mountain Club lodges in New Hampshire's White Mountains, summer reservations are up 9 percent over last year, and the four summer overnight hikes led by naturalists are sold out. So the club, which gets three out of four customers from New England, last week added a fifth hike, said spokeswoman Laura Hurley.

And in Bar Harbor, many inns, primarily visited by people who live within a day's drive, have seen summer reservations rise 10 to 20 percent over last summer, said Chris Fogg, executive director of the resort town's chamber of commerce.

Landon Wong of Malden will wind up in Maine or Vermont this summer, although he'll be sleeping at a campsite rather than a bed and breakfast. The 31-year-old said he "wanted to take a real trip this summer" and was going to pay for it with his $600 economic stimulus check, but he decided last week not to spend a week visiting friends in Los Angeles because airfare alone costs $350 to $500.

"My electric bill is over $100, and my rent just went up two months ago," said Wong, a records manager in Emerson College's admissions office. "The cost of living in general these days is going up and up - and my salary isn't."

To further fuel the cost-conscious travel trend, Maine's Office of Tourism plans to unveil a $120,000 radio, TV, and print ad campaign next month encouraging residents to explore the Pine Tree State. "This is kind of a new thing for us," said Steve Lyons, the office's director of marketing. "We've historically done most of our advertising out of the state."

And the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau is almost tripling the amount of marketing funds that it spent last summer targeting the "drive market" - people living 150 miles to 300 miles away from Boston. The $300,000 campaign started yesterday.

But it doesn't necessarily take a tank of gas to find summer fun. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has tapped ad agency Hill Holliday to create a marketing blitz around the "vacation at home" concept - an idea the city also rolled out during the tourism drought following the Sept. 11 terrorists' attacks. The campaign, scheduled to launch next month, will highlight free events for families, said Julie Burns, director of the Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism & Special Events. "One of our ideas is: Why go to Italy when you have the North End in your backyard?"

That should cheer up Boston taxi driver Habenom Gebru. He doesn't plan to travel with his teenagers this summer because filling up at the gas station now costs $63 a day, leaving him with $40 in take-home pay at the end of his 12-hour shift, if he's lucky.

"We buy less groceries," said Gebru, who settles for a Coke and bag of chips for lunch. "I cannot afford to go to vacation."

Nicole C. Wong can be reached at nwong@globe.com.