A year out from peak inflation, travel and leisure (mostly) cost less
It took a while, but Americans are just about done catching up on experiences lost during the pandemic. One exception: wealthy travelers are still splurging on trips abroad.
It took a while, but people are just about done catching up on experiences lost during the pandemic.
While a minority of high-dollar travelers are still confronting — and paying — four-figure airfares to Paris and Tokyo, prices are finally falling across the leisure economy, the last several months of federal data show.
That’s good news for consumers, as well as economists and policymakers seeking reasons for optimism that the economy can regain its footing without sliding into a recession.
Consumer Price Index figures released Wednesday morning showed airfares down 19% in June from last year and car rental rates down 12%, for their fifth consecutive month of declines. Food away from home, which includes restaurant meals, continued to rise, but the category’s annual growth rate of 7.7% in June slowed from 8.8% in March. Ticket prices for sporting events ticked up last month, but the rise came after three straight months of declines.
“It’s the consumer getting to the end of their ‘revenge spending,’” said Skanda Amarnath, the executive director of the macroeconomic policy group Employ America.
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