It's biting...airfares and hotels drop prices

It's the holiday season, but from the emails I've received this week it seems the poor economy's taking a chunk out of the travel bookings and holiday cheer!

This month, Farecast tells me that despite holiday travel costing ~35% more than last year (probably due to increased gas prices) something odd has happened at the end of October. There's been a turnaround as fares have dropped as we enter the holiday and Christmas season and fares have actually fallen below last year's prices?! Now, it's safe to assume lower oil prices ($50 a barrel now from its peak of $145) may be the reason, but the truth is consumer confidence is at an all-time-low!

And connected to this squeeze is a tightening of the belt that's even affecting Vegas vacations. The hotels are already taking action. For CES in January 09, the hotels are cutting their losses and have dropped their prices by <$75. Even so, right now I think I'm going to skip CES and use the company's money more conservatively. So, no AVN either ;) The end of a tradition!

See below Can you can guess where the price line will plot from now until the end of 2008?