BOCA RATON, Fla. — A new poll conducted by Florida Atlantic University found Floridians are cutting back on many things, including travel, due to rising inflation.
“It’s ridiculous. I fuss about it but then, not much you can do about it because you need the gas,” said Dani Leetch, who’s visiting South Florida this week.
Prices at the pump are still hovering around $5 a gallon.
“Ridiculous. I need a bike,” said Kimberly Fernandez, who’s visiting South Florida from Atlanta.
“Everything is going up. So it’s not just gas prices. It’s the food prices. It’s everything,” said Jupiter resident Dawn Frayer.
Because of that, many Floridians are cutting back in order to pay the bills.
“We found that Floridians are concerned about the economy,” said Monica Escaleras, chair of the Economics Department at Florida Atlantic University.
Escalaras told WPTV many Floridians are choosing not to travel out of state this summer.
“Inflation in South Florida is around 9.1% so it’s higher than the overall economy and I think that’s a problem,” she said.
FAU recently surveyed 532 Floridians and 79% of them said they’re cutting back on travel and entertainment right now in order to pay the bills.
“The hospitality industry got affected by the pandemic and now in the last year, they have been coming back but now we can see that consumers are a little but hesitant to go and travel again,” she said.
Escalaras also said airfare is up 33% compared to last year.
However, Memorial Day weekend travelers we spoke with at Palm Beach International Airport on Thursday said they’re cutting other things out of their lives so they can visit family and friends out of state not only this weekend, but this summer too.
“We’re going to Vegas in July and then we come back to Ft Lauderdale,” Fernandez said.
“We’re celebrating out 10th anniversary and heading to Alaska. So, we’re really excited about that,” Leetch said.