"Funflation" Is the New Staycation: Americans Are Pouring Money Into Hobbies Instead of Plane Tickets

Call it funflation. With jet fuel prices driving airfares higher, Americans are quietly rewriting their leisure budgets — spending more on hobbies, gear and home-based recreation instead of expensive trips, according to a Bank of America analysis released September 26.

The numbers, first reported on September 27, are striking. Bank of America found that spending on hobbies — arts, crafts, outdoor gear and the like — grew 7.9% year-on-year in August 2026, dramatically outpacing the 3.4% growth in total transactions. Zoom out and the divergence is even sharper: total U.S. retail and food-services sales grew 6% in the 12 months through August, but sales at sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores jumped 10.7%. In other words, the leisure dollar isn't disappearing. It's relocating.

The reason is sitting on the tarmac. Rising jet fuel prices have pushed airfares up, and consumers are doing the math: the week-long getaway gets shelved, the craft room gets funded. Analytics firm Cirium's data shows airline bookings from the U.S. to Europe down about 6% this summer versus 2025, with a similar dip for fall travel. Travel advisors say a late-October or early-November river cruise now costs 15 to 20 percent more than the same trip in early September — roughly $1,000 more — and even October hotel rooms at smaller luxury properties are getting scarce.

So the money flows toward the categories that are booming: yarn and canvases, guitars and golf clubs, hiking boots and novels. It's the at-home version of the experience economy — still spending on joy, just closer to the front door.

The shift shows up in travel behavior too, where the new normal is shorter, closer and more frequent. Fall has officially surpassed summer as the top season for weekend trips, with travelers discovering that September, October and November offer better weather in many destinations, fewer crowds and lower prices. The "micro-cation" — a well-planned two-to-four-day trip instead of the traditional week-long vacation — is one of the year's defining formats, fitting neatly into hybrid work schedules where a Monday video call can happen from a different time zone.

The drive market is thriving as a result. Among working empty nesters — one of the most active leisure-travel demographics — two-thirds skipped the airport entirely on their leisure trips, hopping in their own cars instead; only 37% boarded a flight. When they arrive, they want a real hotel (60% chose traditional hotels over short-term rentals), spotless housekeeping (81% call it non-negotiable), fair prices (76%) and a convenient location (64%). Brand loyalty barely registers: only 24% care about sticking with a hotel chain.

You can see the formula working at places like Dollywood's Harvest Festival, running September 14 through October 31 in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee — Southern gospel and bluegrass across the park's theaters, master artisans demonstrating blacksmithing and glassblowing, Appalachian menus with fried apple pies and roasted sweet potatoes, and the glowing Great Pumpkin LumiNights after dark. The festival draws an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 visits across its run, and almost all of it is drive-market: people choosing a long weekend within reach over a flight across the country.

None of this means people stopped traveling. Luxury bookings are actually surging — one Virtuoso advisor reported November bookings and sales up 70 to 71 percent, a month travelers used to skip. The pattern is bifurcation: fly far and go big, or stay close and go often. What's shrinking is the middle — the expensive, logistically heavy trip that funflation priced out.

The deeper story is a values shift that outlasts any fuel price. After years of reassessing what a good life looks like, consumers keep choosing memories and skills over stuff — they're just buying the experience in smaller, nearer, more hands-on portions. A weekend at the Harvest Festival, a new guitar, a shelf of books, a garden that finally gets planted. Funflation isn't the death of the getaway. It's the getaway, democratized — and it fits in the garage.