When Roger Bell would take a vacation, he liked to fly to a national park or visit friends for two weeks. But like many Americans, Bell, a Woodstock, Ga.-based technical writer, lost his job in 2009. And that changed the way he vacations — maybe permanently.

Bell was unemployed almost a year before finding a new job that paid 25 percent less than his old one. That, in turn, downsized his next vacation to an overnight trip.

"I'm only taking a few days off work over the weekend and only going to coastal Georgia for a beach trip by car," he says.

Welcome to the "new" normal in travel: Shorter, less expensive vacations — or in extreme cases, just daycations — being taken by increasingly cost-conscious travelers. Maybe you've been on one of these mini-trips in the last year. If you haven't, you probably will.

Travelers say they've begun strategically downsizing their vacations. From where I'm sitting, it looks as if these changes are here to stay.

An American Express survey released earlier this year found that 80 percent of travelers were trying to trim costs for summer travel by driving instead of flying and were looking for deals. And it's not just us. A Gallup poll concluded that 4 in 10 European residents cut their vacations in 2009.

No doubt about it, being frugal is "in." Consider what happened to Dean Starovasnik, who works for a technology company in Atlanta. He spent a week on Jekyll Island, Ga., which is half the length of his "normal" vacation.

"We packed food for picnic lunches on both five-hour drives," he says. "We used Hilton points from my business travel at the brand-new property on the Jekyll Island beach and stretched them even further by staying Monday through Friday. The property offered the standard Hampton Inn breakfasts, which included at least one hot entree each day."

Jekyll Island has a lot of natural attractions, which Starovasnik and his family were able to see at no additional charge using the hotel's rental bikes (they got them free because of his elite status with Hilton).

Starovasnik is the typical "new" vacationer. He doesn't spend money if he doesn't have to and thinks creatively about travel and recreation. But other forces are at work. Airlines added fees, hotels slashed amenities and cruise lines piled on the surcharges faster than your aunt can load up her plate at the midnight buffet. Some argue that those changes set in motion the events leading to the downsized vacations now being taken by people like Starovasnik and Bell.

Let's take a closer look at the traveler of today — and tomorrow.

Here are a few ways to spot the "new" traveler:

• They burn their miles. Frequent flier miles don't appreciate over time. Today's traveler is aware of the fact that miles lose value, particularly in light of the way in which some loyalty programs have raised their redemption rates.

• They live smaller. How much time do you spend in your hotel room or cruise ship berth? Big, expensive accommodations are a waste.

• They do more with less. When Joan Schmelzle, a retiree from Rockford, Ill., saw her stock portfolio heading south, she decided to abbreviate her Italian vacation this fall. Cutting the time by more than half, from a generous 10 weeks to four, meant she had to cram more cities into her itinerary. But it's all the more reason, she says, to savor her trip. "I've been promising myself this vacation for years and years," she says. The getaway promises to be no less eventful: Itinerary stops now include Florence, and she'll be spending Christmas in Rome, "another longtime dream." I hear the same thing from other travelers, who are somehow able to fit a week's worth of activities into a weekend.

And how about the travel industry? Will it have to adjust to the new "normal," or is there a way to revive the Great American Vacation? Cutting prices is almost certainly not the answer. That's been tried. Look at the airlines. What a disaster!

I think the answer is to bring back service. I'm not talking about over-the-top, obsequious, the customer-is-always-right kind of service, although that wouldn't be such a terrible thing. I'm talking about a more pragmatic kind: More "pleases" and "thank-yous" and remembering that we're not a number, and that this is our vacation.

Service was the first thing to get jettisoned out the cabin door when things got tough. Bring it back, and we'll come back.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org, or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.