Travel Up, But Lengths Of Vacations Down

By Matt Bush

More D.C.-area residents were expected to travel this holiday weekend than last year, a sign the economy is rebounding, according to AAA.

Rick Meehan is the mayor of Ocean City, Maryland, a town he says has only one industry: tourism. Much of the town's revenue comes from a room tax applied to hotels and condominiums. And while the number of visitors to the city has gone up over the past two years, Meehan says the economic downturn still changed how that happened.

"The condos made an adjustment," he says. "Three or four years ago, they started to get more active in the 'mini-week' program, where you could book a condo for three or four days as opposed to a week. I think that went along with the changes in the way people travel."

As for this year, Meehan says their room tax revenue is ahead of what they collected at this time last year.