Yes, it's true, fears of $3 gallons of gas have probably cut short your plans to drive cross-country to gawk at the world's biggest ball of yarn. The travel industry knows it, too. With rising transportation costs and discretionary dollars on hold, some amazing cruise and overseas vacation packages are starting to materialize.
Communicating these deals to the end user in a hurry is giving some dot-com vindication to suddenly cash-flow-positive online sites like Travelocity
However, since major itineraries are drawn up an average of six months previous to actual travel dates, tempting offers might fall on deaf ears for travelers who have already decided to stay close to home this season. So while theme park giant Disney
Six Flags
Next in line is Cedar Fair
Despite their differing mindsets, both are ready for the steady summer sounds of turnstile clicks. As regional parks, they derive about 90% of their parkgoer audience from residents living within a 150-mile radius of a park.
While admission and concession prices regularly creep up 3%-5% a year and the drive to the parks isn't going to get any cheaper this season, the regional amusement parks offer entertainment at reasonable prices compared to more distant destinations. But the queue of believers is already building. Through last Thursday, Six Flags and Cedar Fair have seen their stocks rise 35% and 24%, respectively, this year.
In short, it's a sector worth riding, even if you have to wait for the front seat.
Rick has big plans for the summer season. Real big! He owns shares of Disney. Rick's stock holdings can be viewed online, as can the Fool's disclosure policy.
Summer Stocks represents the opinion of one Fool and should in no way be taken as the opinion of either The Motley Fool, Inc. or the company in question, or as representative of anyone or anything other than that specific Fool's thoughts.