To say that there are a lot of people who will be glad to see 2008 end as soon as possible would be a small understatement. It was a rough year and there is no discounting that. 2009 is not forecast to be much better, but travel may be an area where there is some silver lining.

Oddly enough, a recession is when we see consumers given the maximum amount of leverage over companies. Why? Well, there are fewer dollars to go around, which means you can start to get a better idea of real prices. I, for one, want to get into the flat screen television business. Suddenly, prices are dropping 70 percent or more and you can rest assured these companies are still making profits. Can you imagine how big those profits were before prices dropped? Amazing.

With 2009 shaping up to be another year of tight consumer spending, travelers are actually going to be in fairly good shape. This, of course, assumes you have money to travel. If you do, you are looking at an interesting landscape. First, fuel prices are way down as demand has disappeared. This means airlines should come correct on their extra baggage charges. Second, there are a lot of tourist markets competing for fewer and fewer tourists.

Consider Las Vegas. What does the city run on? Visitors. The entire city is designed to lure visitors into town and keep them there as long as possible. This is why the city went so "family friendly" years ago. If parents could bring kids with them, this opened up an entirely new market segment.

Now consider Vegas in 2009. Who has extra money to go to Las Vegas for a weekend? Not many people are going to be splurging. Vegas will act quickly. Expect to see some incredible package deals. They will be combining flights with rooms, foods and shows for prices not seen in two or thirty years. If you have some cash and want to see Sin City, this is going to be a great year for it.

Going international is going to probably represent an even better deal. Many international destinations focus on bringing in Americans and Europeans. These regions are obviously suffering through brutal economic periods and we won't even mention the problems in Iceland. This is going to result in a harsh pull back on vacation travel. Tourist destinations that are typically packed with people are going to be hurting. From the Mexican Riviera to the Greek Islands, you can expect your tourist dollar to go along way.

The idea of going on a vacation in 2009 may seem iffy at best given the economic conditions. If you are one of the fortunate few who are doing alright in the current economic situation, however, there may be no better time to get more bang for your travel buck.