Palm Springs Vacation Destination Hot Spot
A rash of job cuts in government and education is leaving the City of Palm Springs looking for some good news, and Wednesday that good news finally came.
One of the most popular online travel guides in the world voted Palm Springs one of the top ten vacation rental spots in the United States.
“Palm Springs is blessed with a terrific location,” said Rob Kincaid, co-owner or Vacation Palm Springs, a vacation home rental company.
“We came out last year and we flew,” said Joan Thien, traveling from Vancouver. “This year we drove.”
Thien and her husband David said the drive from Vancouver was worth it.
“It’s the weather and you can golf and, yes, you can also walk everywhere,” said David Thien. “You don’t neccessarily have to have a car.”
The Thiens seem to be a part of a growing trend in Palm Springs, where tourism is solid.
“Palm Springs, year-to-date, is about equal [to or] a little bit ahead of last year,” said Mary Jo Ginther, director of the Palm Springs Tourism Bureau.
Despite a frugal economy, vacation home rentals are up more than 10 percent for several vacation home rental companies in the area.
“People are opting to rent a vacation home because it’s spacious,” said Kincaid, whose company represents more than 200 vacation homes.
According to Vacation Palm Springs, the city is a reasonable drive away for some 20 million people, which is one reason why online travel guide TripAdvisor voted Palm Springs number seven on it’s top 10 list of vacation rental home hot spots.
“When times are tough, people look for ways to economize on vacations and then you drive to Palm Springs, rather than flying to Hawaii or Mexico as they have potentially in the past,” said Kincaid.
Vacation home rentals contribute between $1 million to $1.5 million of revenue every year to the City of Palm Springs, according to Kincaid.
“It’s expensive,” said Joan Thien. “[I] wouldn’t want to do it every year. But, it’s nice.”
The city also benefits from a Transient Occupancy Tax, otherwise known as a hotel tax, and according to the Tourism Bureau, that tax revenue is equal to or slightly higher than last year.
