Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) reported an earnings drop of 29% for its fiscal third quarter. Weakness in visits from out-of-state guests was the primary reason. Total skier visits across the company's properties -- Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge in Colorado, and Heavenly in California -- were down 5.3% relative to the same period for the previous year.

The ski resort operator generated total earnings for the quarter (which ended April 30, 2009) of $61.6 million, which amounts to $1.68 per share. For the quarter ending April 30, 2008, Vail Resorts had earnings of $87.3 million (or, $2.24 per share).

Earlier this week we were looking at oil prices, and wondering if we would see the precious crude break through the psychological $70 barrier, and that is exactly what we saw today.

For the first time since last November, oil prices were briefly above $70 today, moving up as high as $70.32 before profit taking pushed oil prices down on the day. We finished up the week at $68.44, down 37 cents.

How can exports not rebound? Last year ended on a sour note after posting record results, and 2009 is by all accounts likely to be ugly. The tourism and travel industry is expected to shed more than 200,000 jobs this year. Fortunately, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. The U.S. Department of Commerce expects international visits to the United States to come back in 2010 – after its first forecasted year of decline (i.e., 2009) since 2003.

This year, international travel to the United States is expected to fall 8%. The following year, however, U.S. travel exports are expected to gain 5%, with 5% annual increases through the end of 2013. We'll come out ahead in all this, but it's going to take some time.

Will the influx of foreign visitors over the next four years be enough to turn the travel industry in the United States around? It's too soon to tell right now, and much will depend on the contributions made by domestic routes. Needless to say, even this glimmer of hope must be welcome to investors committed to the airline and hotel sectors.

Las Vegas isn't the only gaming mecca struggling for numbers; Macau saw the number of visitor arrivals to its shores drop 3.5% in April to about 1.87 million.

For the first four months of the year, visitor arrivals by land have dropped 15.5% on a year-over-year basis, while arrivals by air are slumping as well, off 5.9% for the first third of 2009. Total visitor arrivals in 2009 are down 8.1% from the same time period last year.

Oil continued its charge today and traded up 3.4% to close the week out at $58.63 and creates a situation where we could very likely be looking at $60 oil again by the end of next week. The last time oil was trading this high was all the way back on November 11.

On Monday we looked at oil, and noted that a big reason for oil's recent jump is increasing optimism towards the overall economy, and that is still the case. The Labor Department reported a drop of 539,000 non-farm payrolls in April, lower than the anticipated loss of 610,000 jobs.

This afternoon, Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) had its turn in the earnings lineup, and the company failed to meet analyst estimates for the quarter, and is being punished in after hours trading as a result.

Going into this afternoon's earnings announcement, analysts had been hoping to see the company show earnings of $0.44 per share on revenues of $703.53 million. Adjusted earnings for the quarter were far below this, with a reported $0.07 cents per share on only $614.3 million in revenues.

One wouldn't think someone would criticize one of the few growth sectors in the United States that has managed to remain intact and in good health during the nation's decade of economic descent, but that's what author Elizabeth Becker does.

In an op-ed article in The Washington Post, Becker argues against global tourism -- one the few bright spots in the U.S. economy, and also increasingly a source of income for many developing nations -- saying it's "a planet-threatening plague."

The U.S. unemployment rate is rising. The U.S housing sector is in its worst slump in a generation. Oil prices remain sky high. Business investment is sluggish. The investment banking community and most in the financial community in/around Wall Street, have a perpetual look on their faces of 'waiting for the other shoe to drop.' And now an argument is being made against one the U.S.'s few growth sectors -- tourism. You can just see the late Jackie Gleason, The Great One, looking down upon all this and saying, "What is the world coming to?"

These are tough economic times for the nation, most would agree, and one hard-hit sector has been the airline sector, specifically the major carriers.

Surging fuel costs, the increased precautions and reviews required for the post-September 11 era, and intensifying competition for international routes has led to large losses among many major carriers - - a condition that has forced them to raise fares and implement other cost-cutting changes.

Most have also instituted a baggage fee for a passenger's second bag, with some carriers charging for all bags. Still, for the most part travelers have taken the baggage fees in stride. Although viewed as a nuisance by many travelers, the reality is a second bag, in particular, is optional weight that increases flying costs per mile. And with aviation fuel zooming past latte-price levels, that's no significant expense.

Still, US Airways Inc. may have gone one too far with the fee system. Effective today, US Airways will start charging for water on flights by coach passengers, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday (subscription required). Bottled water will be $2. Passengers flying first class are exempt from the extra fee.

Oil prices have been falling today, helped by the release of the weekly inventory report which showed larger than expected reserves in the precious crude.

Going into today's report, analysts were expecting to see the Department of Energy announce that oil inventories fell by 1.9 million barrels last week, but in fact we only saw a decline of 1.6 million barrels.

Gasoline is probably more on the minds of most consumers, and what we saw in gasoline demand was even more extreme. Analysts had expected to see a rise of about 500,000 barrels of gasoline supplies last week, but the actual increase came in at 2.9 million barrels, a clear sign that high gasoline prices have forced many of us to cut back on our usage.

As we discussed in our earnings preview yesterday, hotel manager Marriott International (NYSE: MAR) reported its second quarter numbers this morning, and as we expected, we were given some more troublesome news from the company.

First the good news. While analysts had been expecting to see the company show earnings of 49 cents a share, the company was actually able to come in higher, with 51 cents per share. However, despite showing 2 cents better than expected, this still represents an 11% drop in earnings from continuing operations.

With so much uncertainty around the company going into this morning's earnings report, you may assume that beating its number by 2 cents would have the stock moving higher in premarket trading. Well, you would be wrong. The stock is actually trading down a little more than 6% following the news.

The earnings season was officially launched last night with Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) reporting better than expected numbers, and tomorrow we are going to see another big name, Marriott International (NYSE: MAR) report its second quarter numbers.

The company is due to report its current earnings prior to the market open, and going into tomorrow's report analysts are looking to see the company show 49 cents per share on $3.15 billion in revenues. The housing slump over the past year has definitely been hurting hotel operators, so it will be interesting to see what kind of quarter Marriott is able to show to its investors.

The last time the hotel chain released its quarterly numbers was back on April 17, when it matched analyst estimates for its first quarter with 33 cents per share. The stock made a brief rally following the release, but over the past month has been in a solid downward trend.

Fuel prices seem to be the number one concern on just about everyone's mind lately, and it seems like things are not going to be getting better any time soon. As prices have risen to record levels, many of us have decided to cut back on our driving, especially on long trips in order to save a little on our fuel prices. Well, the airlines are no different, and there's an interesting report today in The Wall Street Journal showing how airlines are cutting back on long flights in order to save a little on fuel consumption.

It is a pretty nasty cycle we are seeing with the airlines. The higher fuel costs have led to higher tickets prices and extra fees. These higher prices have led to less air traffic, and that has led to an even greater need to find more ways to cover rising costs. Definitely a tough situation.

The new way they are starting to combat the high costs of flying is by cutting back, or postponing long international flights, in particular flights that are in excess of 12 hours.

Oil continued to remain strong with prices moving slightly higher this morning, ahead of today's weekly inventory report. The main reason for prices remaining strong continues to be worries over oil supplies.

Traders have pushed prices through the $142 mark this morning, with the precious crude trading as high as $142.45, but have cooled off a bit and are now sitting at $141.06, which is $0.09 higher on the day. As Douglas McIntyre discussed earlier, typically such high oil prices are expected to put a crimp in demand, but this time around that may not be the case at all. Already many analysts are stating that demand may not fall too much, even with the record high gasoline prices.

We should get a slightly clearer picture on just how true that is later today when the Department of Energy releases the weekly inventory numbers. Last week inventories increased, but that is expected to reverse this week, and analysts are predicting this week's oil inventory numbers to actually show a decline of around 1.2 million barrels (compared with a 800,000 barrel increase that was reported last week).

Shares of AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) crashed today on Wall Street on a string a bad news out of its principal subsidiary, American Airlines, as current record-high oil prices continue to wreak havoc on the airline industry.

Oil prices have been continuing to soar, and earlier today crude traded through the $133 mark, and nearly busted $134, trading as high as $133.82.

What does this mean for airlines? You guessed it... major changes in order to combat the rising costs of keeping their planes in the air, and after announcing a few new changes today, AMR took the full brunt of Wall Street, as nervous traders pushed the already beaten-up stock down another 24.2%.

So what exactly got the market so spooked? Well, I am not really sure which of the following was the final nail in the coffin; you can almost just take your pick:

• The company announced that it would be slashing the number of flights that it offers
  
• The company announced that it would start charging for all checked luggage
  
• And, last but not least, the company is being forced to reduce its workforce

We have all been there before, standing beside the luggage conveyor belt after a long flight, quietly praying for our luggage to magically pop out of that little window and slide our way. When our luggage finally shows up, it typically means the end of a long day that generally has the potential to stress out most travelers.

For me at least, as long as I get my luggage I am satisfied with my trip. But for a lot of us, there are several factors we use to grade the airlines, and a recent survey shows that customer dissatisfaction is running at near record level lows. These factors include anything from planes leaving and arriving on time, to the service inside the plane from fight attendants, to just how easily mishaps get handled by the agents at the ticketing desks.

Having lived in Europe the past few years, I have been no stranger to the long distance flight back and forth to the States. I suppose I have traveled roughly 100,000 miles on airlines over the past couple of years, and I have to say that for the most part I have had very pleasant experiences. My girlfriend was unfortunate enough to have lost some luggage for a week over this past Christmas, but other than that, I have been pretty lucky.