Will gas prices have a impact on the parks?

With gas prices now hitting the $3 mark per gallon, do you think this will impact the parks at all?

Not only for the average park goer, but for all the peolple that have rv's and like to camp at the parks. I can't emagine what it would cost to haul a trailer or rv long distance.

What are your thoughts on this?

Im the type of person who really does not let gas prices effect my traveling. Nothing will stop me not even greedy gas companies.

It's already impacting my plans to go to parks and I'm sure it will effect others as well.

I was going to go to Dorney today to get my pass processed (45 minute drive and with gas and tolls it's a little over $20). I decided I'll wait to go next week when the park is open and dead instead of going on opening day as my original plan was to get my pass processed before opening day as the line on opening day can easily be 2 hours to process the pass. If gas was $1.50 - $2.00 a gallon or maybe even $2.25, I would have gone today *** Edited 5/3/2007 1:50:06 AM UTC by YoshiFan***

Some will claim it does. Some will claim it doesn't. Some will show you some great math to show you how it shouldn't.

If anything I think it will affect some enthusiasts more than anything. We're the ones who generally try to spend a bunch of time at the parks and try to visit multiple parks each year. Sometimes we even take long road trips. I can see some people deciding to take it easier this summer due to the gas prices, but not most.

Your typical family who only visits one park once each summer shouldn't be affected by the higher gas prices.

Planning at least two driving trips of more than 1500 miles this season - so I guess that's a no.

(and I didn't even use any math ;) )

High gas prices mean that people won't drive as far for vacations. I've heard this is a good thing for the regional parks. For large destination parks, this isn't as good.

We had this same exact thread after Katrina hit (and probably last summer as well). Did it stop people from traveling? No. If you're determined to go to park a, b, or c to ride x, y, or z, the little bit extra in gas money is not going to stop you.

Let's say your gas tank holds thirteen gallons of gas and you were paying $2.50 a gallon--that would come to $32.50. Now let's say that gas goes up to $3.00 a gallon--that would come to $39.00. And as they say on "The Price is Right," that's a difference of $6.50.

Is $6.50 really going to keep a family or your buddies from traveling to a park? I highly doubt it. If it does, then I'd say you need to look at your income a little bit more closely.

And if the vehicle you're driving causes you to stop multiple times for refills, maybe it's time to trade it in for something a little bit more economical. No one is forcing you to drive the Hummer or Excursion. *** Edited 5/3/2007 4:14:36 AM UTC by Intamin Fan***

Well, they are now saying that gas could reach $4 a gallon by summer.

Attendance was down at a lot of parks this past summer, but in park spending was up. That tells me that less people are traveling long distance to get to a park, so they are going to the local park and spending the money that they would have spent on traveling expences.

Say you have an suv. It's going to coast a lot more than just $6.50 a tank of gas, and it may take that person several tanks of gas to get from point a to point b. And even more if you have a camper.

Nobody is forcing anyone to drive an suv, but let's face it...look at all the cars out on the road. Most of them are suv's or mini vans. I agree that people need to start looking at what they are driving.

And with all the people losing there jobs these days, it makes people think twice before making a big investment like a family vacation to a far away place. So gas price does play a role in that. *** Edited 5/3/2007 4:55:03 AM UTC by crazy horse***

It won't affect us this summer. Last fall when we bought our MaxxPasses, we planned on a long 2-3 week family roadtrip in August to hit many of the CedarFair parks. I'm not going to let the oil CEO bastar** take that away from us. I might even tie Dick Cheney to the car roof....

$4/gallon for gas is still less than it cost in this country five years ago. In short, it won't affect my plans much.

Parks in metropolitan areas should not be affected that much. High gas could mean more people stay close to home which is good for parks such as KW, RP, EG, SFA, VF, WOF, and others that depend primarily on their local markets. Parks that could be impacted are those that depend more upon longer travel such as CP, BGE, SDC and HW.

Or people could still go, but not spend as much while they're there, which could affect in-park spending. I mean, they'll still eat, but that's about it.

I guess there's no real formula for this. If people want to go, they'll probably go.

They didn't seem to change a whole lot last summer---attendance was generally flat to up slightly, except for Six Flags, which had its own issues.

Ultimately, no. If someone wants to go, they will go, as concluded by AAA last summer when everyone was freaking out about gas prices.

Ultimately, it WILL have an effect...

People will tend to stay more regionaly vs. making a larger trip to somewhere further away.

Let's take, for instance, the area I'm in. WNY is in the Buffalo market. There are a number of parks in the regional area including Darien Lake, Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, Great Escape, & Dorney Park to name a few...

...people will be more inclined to stay in the area and travel no more than a few hundred miles vs. parks that are more of a destination that they would LIKE to hit, but would wind up costing them a couple hundred more for the entire trip, including trips down South such as all the Orlando parks, or maybe even Busch Gardens... and to a lesser extent for the coaster-nut... Holiday World.

...with gas prices climbing, and being nearly a dollar higher than it should be, that dollar adds up quickly, even for a vehicle that's fairly decent on gas-milage.

HOWEVER, that won't deter people from enjoying themselves... they'll just tend to do it more locally within maybe a 350 mile radius or so (essentially a one-tank trip 1-way trip). **

** that's my theory & I'm stickin' with it!

I'll be flying to Spokaine this August to attend the ACE Day at Silverwood.

I drive a Yamaha Motor Scooter most of the time to keep my Gas Costs down, using my Ranger only for Out of Town trips and Inclement Weather. There is one group of people I have NO SYMPATHY for regarding these Gas Prices. Those who insist on having HUGE Trucks or SUVs or "Muscle Cars" because "They want to be seen in them". In other words, they bought them ONLY as a Status Symbol. These are the ones who cry out the largest whenever the cost of Gas goes up. If they only bought what they needed (As I have done) we wouldn't have these problems with Gas Prices! We have the Technology to make 100 MPG Vehicles, but nobody wants them because they wont go over 45 miles per hour! As for all of those who have bought these Gas Guzzlers, Let them reap what they have sown!

*** Edited 5/3/2007 3:53:21 PM UTC by Borntocoast***

I drive a an older smaller car with the same size tank as my wife's small SUV. We get about the same gas mileage (mine is a little better). We take the SUV for longer trips becuase it is more comfortable to ride in and is less likely to have problems. Does the price affect me? Yeah a little. But I just asked a friend of mine what the price is per gallon across the pond (England) and he figured it up at about 1.8 USD per liter... That's just over 8 USD per gallon! If I made it to England for a coaster trip, you betch your butt that I would hit Lightwater Valley, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and Alton Towers (etc.) AND probably drive all of it myself instead of using trains between cities regardless of price AND probably try to meet up with some of the CoasterForce peeps. If I lived there, probably the same thing (though not in a 2 week or less span). Suck it up and go have fun! To quote someone famous, "You only live once and you can't take it with you when you die..."

I have a tricked out sports car with most of the trimmings, and I'm proud to be seen in my car, as it gets a lot of gawks & stares (no awards yet)...

...but I also thought practical and ahead of time. I get up to 430 miles all-highway per tank (14.5gal)... but I'm still one of the major complainers of gas-prices because it kills all of us. Not just those guzzlers that get 1-mile per gallon who suck down those quater-pound cheeseburgers in those old fashion non-biodegradable styrofoam containers with whale skin hubcaps & all leather cow interior... but also those who drive a Prius or other 'hybrid' like vehicles. Sometimes, those are the cheapest of the people... they could barely afford a powerful vehicle, so they're really scrimpting & saving to fill up their car each week! I think the Hummer owners, Navigator owners & '72 Nova owners know what they get into when they buy their car.

Anyway... you can have fun, but only at someone else's expense. Unless you're sitting pretty with some extra coinage you've saved up for the summer (ie: tax-returns), a lot of people will be making their trips a lot closer-to-home... it's been proven with a lot of reports when the gas-prices stay jacked up as they are now.

Man, I can only imagine what'll happen if another hurricane hits shore.

There is a e-mail going around urging people not to buy gas on May 15. When this happened in April 1997 gas droped 30 cents overnight.

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crazy horse said:
Well, they are now saying that gas could reach $4 a gallon by summer.

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I have not read one single article that has said tht gas is going up to $4 a gallon by summer. In fact, most of the articles I've been reading said that gas prices will be coming down by the summer.

And Crazy Horse, I totally disagree that most of the people these days are driving SUVs and Minivans. The small/er car is definitely making a comeback.