The Summer of Our Discount Tent

July 21, 2008 8:00 AM EDT

OAKLAND, Calif., July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Americans are planning a summer full of credit crunch camping -- with families opting to ditch expensive hotels and exotic destinations as gas prices continue to soar.

With just a little over a month left before kids all across America head back to school, popular search engine Ask.com is experiencing a surge of questions related to camping vacations, campsites and camping equipment. Ask.com has approximately 32 million unique monthly U.S. visitors (comScore, May 2008).

Search terms including "camping vacations," "best family campsites" and "cheap tents" have more than doubled in the past 30 days. Additionally, the queries "How to build a campfire," "roasting hotdogs" and "how to make s'mores" have also doubled in the same time period.

"Search engines are great social barometers, and this year it's a case of thrift spending as Americans choose camping over pampering," said Andi Riggs, Vice President and Search Trends Expert at Ask.com. "Usually at this time of year we see a huge jump in queries for vacation packages of all kinds, but this year there has been a phenomenal spike in interest in cheap tents... and also where to pitch them," says Riggs.

According to a recent poll conducted by ReserveAmerica, the United States' leading recreation reservation service, 16% of those polled chose camping solely because of the cost savings versus a typical family vacation. Thirty percent chose camping because of high gas prices, and 30% said they are camping closer to home this year.*

"Our advanced online reservations for campgrounds are up 8% this summer as compared to last, and the biggest trend we're seeing is people looking for parks and camping options within 100 miles of their home," said John McDonald, VP of Marketing & Business Development for ReserveAmerica, which is used by more than 17 million campers to research and plan trips each year.

Among travel-related searches on Ask.com, "theme park ticket discounts" and "cheap flights" tie for #1 in July, replacing the traditional top query, "last minute vacation packages," which fell to #5.

One thing remains certain: wherever Americans may be headed this summer, rising gas costs are sure to take a toll on the budget. To find the best gas prices close to home and on the road, Ask.com visitors who enter the search term "cheap gas" and then enter their zip code into the Smart Answer module presented at the top of the results page can find the cheapest gas deals (1).

About Ask.com

Ask.com, a wholly-owned business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), is one of the leading general search engines on the Internet. The Ask network of sites has more than 127 million worldwide unique monthly users, according to May 2008 comScore data. Ask.com syndicates its search technology and advertising solutions to a network of affiliate partners.

About ReserveAmerica

ReserveAmerica is North America's leading camping reservation and campground management solutions provider. ReserveAmerica specializes in complete reservations solutions, stand-alone call center/database management tools, online reservations solutions and park software solutions. The Company manages the largest reservable campsite inventory with partnerships throughout North America. ReserveAmerica is an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI).

* Culled from 2,000 responses to a poll of ReserveAmerica customers, conducted summer 2008.

(1) Pricing data is obtained from 3rd party sources. Ask.com makes no representations, warranties and/or covenants as to the accuracy, timeliness, coverage, and/or completeness of such data.

SOURCE Ask.com; ReserveAmerica

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