With yet another snowstorm bearing down on the East Coast, winter-weary travelers may be sparking an increase in summer beach house bookings, several articles report.

A Philadelphia Inquirer story today quotes Jersey Shore Realtors saying that the number of bookings for “June, July, and August is up about 10 percent over last year at this time.” Says Deedra Bowen, a real estate agent in family friendly Ocean City, in the artlce: Folks “get finished shoveling that driveway and say to themselves, ‘That’s it. We’re going to the beach this summer.’”

South Carolina tourism officials are also predicting a better summer for beach and golf on Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand because of the long Northeast winter, according to an Associated Press article that quotes Chad Prosser, director of the state’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. “You see it very profoundly in the golf market. When they can’t golf up north it does increase our numbers,” he says in the story.

Of course, any booking increases in these markets can’t be tied entirely to winter, as 2009 was perhaps the most dismal year for leisure tourism since the period after 9/11. Although some Shore towns finished the season on a good note – thanks to people living in drive markets who were seeking values – the uncertain economy and poor weather led a prevelance of last-minute bookings.

And there’s no way to predict if Jersey’s experience will be seen throughout the Atlantic coast. In Delaware, the snow over President’s Day actually hampered people from coming out to look at rental properties, a WBOC report said. The story added that  business is about the same as last year.

What do you think? Does the thought of more snow make you more inclined to book a beach vacay? Any travel agents out there seeing an increase? Tell me in the comments!

In other news, I’ll be at the New York Times Travel Show this weekend, talking to vacation and destination providers, and I plan to ask them how 2010 is shaping up for leisure travel.

Early reports say that the luxury market – which suffered the worst during the Great Recession - is creeping back, but overall, rates are still way down from last year – like 13.2 percent, according to this post from Hotel Check In’s Barbara De Lollis.   That’s not necessarily bad for those of us who seek out luxury at a value price: The story says that “in certain markets, on certain days,” some five-star hotels may try to compete with four-stars such as Westin, InterContinental and Marriott, just to fill rooms. Now that, I’ll be looking for!

If you are going to be at the show and want to say hi, send me an email (chris@caroundtheworld) or tweet me on Twitter http://twitter.com/CAroundTheWorld). Hopefully the projected “snowicane” won’t be as bad as predicted.