{"id":142680,"date":"2026-01-29T14:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/142680\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:56:13","slug":"travel-inflation-leaves-texas-visitors-and-locals-with-a-sour-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/142680\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel inflation leaves Texas visitors and locals with a sour taste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travel inflation<\/a> in Dallas is lower than the 14.5% national average, but climbing restaurant prices are still leaving visitors and locals with a sour taste. <\/p>\n

The struggle to keep up with post-pandemic travel demand and inflation has led to increased costs for dining, lodging and transportation. <\/p>\n

The sudden increase in tourism has mostly affected mid-sized and smaller cities, where demand has outpaced local infrastructure\u2019s capacity, driving prices higher.<\/p>\n

Historically budget-friendly cities became increasingly popular for domestic travel after the pandemic, said Michael Stromberg, the chief technology officer at Lattice Publishing and collaborator on Luxury Link\u2019s<\/a> report on travel inflation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMore and more people are looking for alternatives for family vacations that fit their budget,\u201d Stromberg said. <\/p>\n

Bigger cities aren\u2019t experiencing such abrupt changes in travel demand, allowing prices to remain more stable. <\/p>\n

In Dallas, cost hikes are on the lower end.<\/p>\n

Diana Moreno, the report\u2019s author, said families visiting Dallas have experienced a more moderate increase in travel costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarger cities with more established travel infrastructure, like Dallas or New York, can accommodate increased demand without as dramatic an increase in overall trip costs,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n

In smaller cities like Albuquerque, the total cost of a four-night trip for a family of four has risen by 27.7%. Similarly, Las Vegas saw a 24.8% increase, according to Luxury Link. <\/p>\n

Based on the same scenario analysis, Dallas showed a 12.4% increase, indicating that family vacations to Dallas are now more expensive than in 2019. Still, Dallas\u2019s overall vacation cost change is less than the national average of 14.5%.<\/p>\n

Dallas\u2019s strong hotel infrastructure is one factor mitigating travel costs.<\/p>\n

Dallas has been one of the country\u2019s top hotel markets for several years, with a record-high of 194 projects and 22,803 rooms, according to the 2024 United States construction pipeline trend report from Lodging Econometrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Dallas had 128 hotel properties accounting for approximately 80% of the room supply and demand, according to the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District (DallasTPID<\/a>) 2020 annual meeting report.<\/p>\n

Forbes<\/a> reported that, according to Lodging Econometrics, 34 new hotels are planned in Dallas for 2026.<\/p>\n

Even though Dallas\u2019s new hotel construction amortizes travel costs, vacation prices have still increased since 2019. <\/p>\n

Luxury Link shows that lodging costs in Dallas rose 16.1%, followed by 5.8% for round-trip flights and 3.4% for rental cars.<\/p>\n

The largest contributor to rising travel costs in Dallas is meals, which increased by 21.2%. <\/p>\n

Dallas-area resident Rahel Tesfaye, 26, acknowledged the boost in dining costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I pay at least three dollars more than what I used to pay,\u201d Tesfaye said. \u201cI try not to eat much outside because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The major inflation in the beef industry, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions and the new tariffs on imported goods contribute to the increase in dining prices.<\/p>\n

The same trend is evident nationwide. Wholesale food prices continue to rise well above their pre-pandemic levels. As of November 2025, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for all foods stood 37% above its February 2020 reading, according to the National Restaurant Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite rising tourism costs, travelers still have various options to manage their budgets.<\/p>\n

Booking during off-peak times, traveling during the shoulder season, using public transport and cooking instead of dining out can significantly lower costs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travel inflation in Dallas is lower than the 14.5% national average, but climbing restaurant prices are still leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[910,918,1764,354,27,29,28,6208],"class_list":{"0":"post-142680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-inflation","11":"tag-restaurants","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}