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Trends Report, June 7, 2009. Families say they'll stay close to home and spend less, but if your kids are almost out of the house and this is your year to go.

In early spring, FTFc, the consulting division of Family Travel Forum, concluded that despite the economic downturn, several online indicators pointed to a growing interest among families trying to make summer vacation plans. Demand was obviously weak; prices were coming down and marketers' imaginations were working overtime to stimulate consumer interest.

By May, it was apparent that price-cutting was having an overall positive effect on short term demand. Then the PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Report confirmed that, for the first time, 25- to 34-year-olds would be spending more per household on vacations than Boomers. Since younger travelers rely more heavily on the Internet than other media for travel research, many self-help travel tools have been developed that redefine the family vacation planning experience for 2009 and beyond. Here are some of our favorite tools and trends with a look at how they came to be.

Rise in Road Trips Leads to Rise in Road Trip Helpers

In mid-May, AAA kicked off the summer travel prognostication season with their annual forecast developed with Insight Express, predicting that up to 1.5% more Americans would travel over Memorial Day weekend this year than last. To accompany their sunny outlook and stimulate traffic (especially among younger travelers) to their online booking engine, AAA has made some of its formerly members-only tools available to all Internet users via AAA.com. One of our favorite programs is AAA's TripTik Travel Planner, which allows families to map a journey by selecting a starting point and an endpoint, then clicking on “Attractions” to choose stops along the way. Motorists are also able to view historic congestion information for the routes they plan. The TripTik Travel Planner service details more than 125 areas across North America where AAA's record of historical traffic patterns can be used to help families plan the best time to drive, even to the most popular destinations. Other features include tools to create custom maps, a travel guide section, and AAA Diamond quality ratings for more than 58,000 lodgings and restaurants. Parents will also appreciate advance notice of current fuel prices at more than 100,000 U.S. gas stations.

We see lots of potential for solid advice from AAA.com if you're heading out on some of American families' most popular road trips, forecast to be:

• *  U.S. Route 1 to the Florida Keys

• *  U.S. 6 into Cape Cod

• *  U.S. Route 26 from Portland, Oregon to coastal beach communities

• *  Drive around the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

• *  Mid-Atlantic roads to eastern shore points such as Ocean City, Maryland

• *  Outer Banks, North Carolina from the Philadelphia to Baltimore corridor.

Another no-cost alternative is Traffic.com, which accepts your beginning and endpoint query online, and spits out a report of real time congestion on a variety of appropriate routes. While it seems to work more effectively online, if you’re already en route, you can minimize the kids' smartphone data transfer costs by calling Traffic.com at 866/698-7232, telling their robotic agents your preferred roadway and direction, then listening for the Jam Factor at each leg of the route. Very handy for those who don't want to pay a monthly fee for live traffic reports from their GPS system provider.