Interest In Auto Trips Shows Upturn, AAA Says

ORLANDO, FL— Interest in auto travel appears to be on the upswing as requests for AAAs Internet TripTik® routings increased nearly 4% last week, after dropping more than 9% the previous week when the war with Iraq began. The weekly AAA National Travel Barometer shows requests for online TripTik routings the week of March 24 reached approximately 107,000 compared to 103,300 the week before. Although overall travel agency bookings were down for the second consecutive week of the barometer, reservations for hotels and car rentals and visits to AAA offices increased. The AAA barometer is based on a sample of 13 clubs representing more than half of the associations 46 million members. It is intended to help gauge the strength of the leisure travel market. A summary of the AAA National Travel Barometers measurements for the week of March 24 compared to the week of March 17 shows: * Car rentals totaled 107% (more than 4,000) as opposed to the March 17 week (nearly 3,800). * Hotel reservations (11,500) were slightly ahead of the previous week (11,400). * Cruise bookings were at 85% (4,800) of bookings the preceding week (5,600). * Tour packages were 86% (7,500) of the previous weeks total (8,700). Visits to AAAs more than 1,000 travel offices were at 107% (29,200) of the same period last week (27,300). Overall AAA Travel Agency bookings— cruises, tour packages, car rentals and hotels— last week (27,800) were at 94% of what they were the previous week (29,500). Bookings last week reached 77% of the same period a year ago (36,000) based on the sampling of the 13 clubs.