Nathan Rains
Nelle Ward

Usually at this time of year, Mark and Cindy Goodson of Cleveland, Tenn., are sunning beside the ocean at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

But this year, with gasoline and diesel fuel prices edging toward $4 and $5 a gallon, the couple shortened the 480-mile drive to the beach by about 460 miles.

The Goodsons this year pulled their travel trailer just 20 miles to Harrison Bay State Park. They are joining a growing number of people who, instead of going on vacation, have opted for a so-called staycation — a vacation spent close to home.

“I have a diesel truck,” said Mr. Goodson, who owns a lawn service. “It would cost an outrageous amount of money for us to go to the beach this year.”

Mrs. Goodson approved of the change.

“We usually only stay at the beach for a week, but we’re going to be here two weeks, and maybe more,” said Mrs. Goodson, as she leaned back in her lawn chair and put her feet up to watch some TV in the park’s open air with a granddaughter. Mr. Goodson had set up an outdoor home theater in their campsite.

As gas prices soar and the economy limps along, staycation has become the buzzword of summer 2008. Hotels, travel firms and even Wal-Mart and the state of Tennessee are marketing stay-at-home or close-to-home getaways.

The Tennessee State Parks recently announced a list of park events to offer summer vacation fun “on less than a tank of gas.” Through a download for your computer, Wal-Mart is offering its “101 Days of Summer Staycations.”

AAA Auto Club spokesman Gregg Laskoski said his organization’s July Fourth holiday travel survey shows the slowing economy and high fuel prices have pushed some Americans to the traveling tipping point.

The survey found that Independence Day travel, like Memorial Day travel, would be down 1.3 percent from 2007, he said.

“The whole staycation concept is a recognition that gas prices and rising energy costs are impacting people, and many are making the best of it by staying home or closer to home,” he said. “They are rediscovering things nearby or going to places at home that they have not visited in the past.”

Nationwide, according to the AAA survey, 40.4 million people were expected to travel for this holiday weekend. About 760,000 were expected to travel at least 50 miles in Tennessee, Mr. Laskoski said.

Bill and Sheila Blair, of Macon, Ga., said higher costs pushed them to change their plans.

“The last two or three years we’ve taken cruises,” Mr. Blair said.

But this year they drove here to spend a few days with Mrs. Blair’s sister in Ooltewah and take in the Chattanooga sights.

“Today we went to Rock City, the Chickamauga Battlefield and the Incline,” Mr. Blair said as the group ended the busy day in the plaza of the Tennessee Aquarium.

“We love Chattanooga,” said the Blair’s son, Matthew, 9.

Syd Lilly of Atlanta also was visiting the Tennessee Aquarium with her family last week.

“We had been looking for a weekend vacation, but then we decided just to do a couple of day trips close to home,” she said, adding that gas and other rising prices prompted their change of heart.

Back at Harrison Bay State Park, the marina gas sales show boaters are not traveling as much by river either.

The marina sold 79,818 gallons of fuel in fiscal 2007, but in the 11 months of the 2008 fiscal year, gas dock operators report selling only 44,480 gallons of fuel, according to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation spokeswoman Tammy Heise. Dock work at the marina during the winter months may have cut down the sales figures some, Ms. Heise said.

Meanwhile, a sign near the 1,200-acre Harrison Bay park entrance late last week proclaimed the campgrounds full.

The license tags on the cars, trucks and campers there read like a local road map. Most were from Hamilton County, quite a few were from Bradley County. Others included Putnam and Cumberland counties in Tennessee and Gwinnett and Murray counties in Georgia.

Children on bicycles pedaled around the 165-or-so campsites as adults cast fishing lines and tended grills.

Nelle Ward, manning the park’s A-Frame registration office and camp store, said many of the campers have told her they can’t afford to go anywhere else.

“They say, ‘By the time I pay for gas, I can’t afford for my family to do anything,’” Ms. Ward said. “So they camp here, and one day they’ll go into Chattanooga to the aquarium. Another day, they go to the (Chickamauga) battlefield.”

Park Ranger Nathan Rains said the park always has been popular with local people because of the variety of opportunities: the river, a swimming pool, a basketball court, a marina with a restaurant, a golf course, hiking trails, activities and the proximity of Chattanooga.

“Well over half of our campers live within about a 30-mile radius,” he said, “but I think we’ve had an increase (in locals) this year.”

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