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Tourism isn't thwarted by high gas prices
Monday, August 14, 2006 | No comments posted.
LA GRANDE (AP) - Gas prices may be high, but road travel remains popular in the northeast corner of Oregon.
Leisure and hospitality businesses in the La Grande area say there are a large numbers of vacationers are on the move, despite fuel prices that top $3 a gallon.
Lowell Fuhrman, manager of the La Grande Rendezvous RV Park on Bearco Loop, said business has been excellent for the last three years and gas prices haven't dampened things.
“I've asked our customers about it, and they say they're going to travel regardless,” Fuhrman said.
The Rendezvous, with 66 full-service pads and nine others offering water and electricity only, has been so busy the last several years that the owner is adding 24 full-service hook-ups to accommodate the steadily increasing traffic.
While vacationers aren't pinching pennies, they do care some about their expenses.
Big, gas-guzzling RVs now are the exception, Fuhrman said. Most of them are pulling fifth-wheels. The big motor homes are expensive to drive, though there will always be some out, he said.
A few miles east of La Grande, at the Eagles Hot Lake RV Park on Highway 203, business also was brisk.
“The cost of gas doesn't stop us,” said one camper, Vicky Andrews of Ontario. “It's just something you have to pay for, like groceries or whatever.”
Megan Braden, manager there, said Eagles Hot Lake is doing double the business as last year.
She said most of her customers are pulling newer fifth-wheels and travel trailers, and that the cost of fuel, while an inconvenience, doesn't seem to be cutting in too much.
“Its just inflation, the way things are,” she said. “People go along with it and maintain.”
Back in La Grande, at the All-American Inn on the west end of Adams Avenue, the story was pretty much the same.
Owner Bob Jellum and Manager John Rowan both said that business is up.
“It's been wonderful,” Rowan said. “We're filling up quite a bit.”
Another local motel, Howard Johnson's on Island Avenue, reported that business was good, if not spectacular.
“I think it slowed down a little from last year, but not a lot, and not like I expected it would with the gas prices,” Manager Janie Carman said.
Leisure and hospitality businesses in the La Grande area say there are a large numbers of vacationers are on the move, despite fuel prices that top $3 a gallon.
Lowell Fuhrman, manager of the La Grande Rendezvous RV Park on Bearco Loop, said business has been excellent for the last three years and gas prices haven't dampened things.
“I've asked our customers about it, and they say they're going to travel regardless,” Fuhrman said.
The Rendezvous, with 66 full-service pads and nine others offering water and electricity only, has been so busy the last several years that the owner is adding 24 full-service hook-ups to accommodate the steadily increasing traffic.
While vacationers aren't pinching pennies, they do care some about their expenses.
Big, gas-guzzling RVs now are the exception, Fuhrman said. Most of them are pulling fifth-wheels. The big motor homes are expensive to drive, though there will always be some out, he said.
A few miles east of La Grande, at the Eagles Hot Lake RV Park on Highway 203, business also was brisk.
“The cost of gas doesn't stop us,” said one camper, Vicky Andrews of Ontario. “It's just something you have to pay for, like groceries or whatever.”
Megan Braden, manager there, said Eagles Hot Lake is doing double the business as last year.
She said most of her customers are pulling newer fifth-wheels and travel trailers, and that the cost of fuel, while an inconvenience, doesn't seem to be cutting in too much.
“Its just inflation, the way things are,” she said. “People go along with it and maintain.”
Back in La Grande, at the All-American Inn on the west end of Adams Avenue, the story was pretty much the same.
Owner Bob Jellum and Manager John Rowan both said that business is up.
“It's been wonderful,” Rowan said. “We're filling up quite a bit.”
Another local motel, Howard Johnson's on Island Avenue, reported that business was good, if not spectacular.
“I think it slowed down a little from last year, but not a lot, and not like I expected it would with the gas prices,” Manager Janie Carman said.
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