The "staycation" – an offspring trend of last summer's $4 a gallon gas – has gained an even stronger foothold in 2009 amid the worst economic times of a generation.

As families and area attractions adapt to the idea of spending vacation money closer to home, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is becoming a staycationer's paradise.

Who hasn't seen the local ad campaign for Great Wolf Lodge? Six Flags Over Texas and the Texas Rangers are offering a double-play combo. And to get the word out about its attractions, the city of Grand Prairie is giving away a $1,400 staycation prize package.

More than 1,000 entries have been received, topping last year's inaugural Grand Prairie staycation contest, according to Amy Sprinkles, the city's communications and marketing director.

"It brings attention to Grand Prairie and the great things we have to see and do," she said. "All of our venues were eager to participate and gave us great offers. It's a good promotional opportunity for them."

The city's attractions are seeing a 4 to 8 percent increase in attendance despite the recession, including Traders Village, Joe Pool Lake, the Louis Tussaud's Palace of Wax, the minor-league AirHogs at QuikTrip Park and Nokia Theatre, Sprinkles said.

About half the bookings for the cabins at the lake are local users, she added. On weekends and holidays, the cabins are booked a year in advance.

Donna Molock of southern Grand Prairie is, by circumstance, a staycationer.

"My daughter's in drill team and has so much going on this summer and doesn't have the time to really get away," Molock said. "But not too many people can go out past their back yard and there's a lake."

The lake's Loyd Park, the revamped Uptown Theater, the AirHogs at QuikTrip Park and Lone Star Park were all part of her family's one-trip-at-a-time-as-time-permits schedule.

"My husband works nights and doesn't have weekends off, so we just have to stick close," Molock said. "That may not sound so exciting to some people and maybe next year we can travel. Who knows?"

Sprinkles said affordability is as important as drivability when it comes to attracting area guests. Evan Barnett, regional manager for Hawaiian Falls Waterparks with locations in The Colony, Garland and Mansfield, agrees.

"We've put a big emphasis this year on staycations," he said. "We've added DJs, games, dance competitions, limbo contests and things. It's a different time every time you come and it's more interactive."

Barnett said that the crowds at all three locations are bigger this summer, that season pass sales ($70 each) have spiked and that the parks that generally draw ages 3-12 and their parents are now drawing more teens.

"Those things and the fact that it is local people who are coming are our indication of why it's a staycation and why what we're doing is working," Barnett said.

The American Amateur Youth Baseball Alliance has turned many select-level baseball vacationers, who commit thousands of dollars to play in national tournaments at the end of the season, into staycationers.

The AAYBA World Series in Flower Mound has the bells and whistles of a marquee event but finds its strength in local numbers.

Of the 368 teams that will play in the event's seven age groups over two weeks this month, 351 are from Texas and about 75 percent are from the D-FW area.

"In just three short years, this World Series has become one of, if not the largest, single site world series events in the country," AAYBA President Carroll Wood wrote in an e-mail. "In a year when many, many youth World Series events are canceling, we are enjoying record numbers."

The city of Grand Prairie is offering a $1,400 "staycation" prize package that includes admission to numerous city attractions. Here is a sampling:

•Nokia Theatre

•An AirHogs baseball game

•Ripley's Believe it or Not and Enchanted Mirror Maze

•Lone Star Park

•Joe Pool Lake camping cabin

•A hotel room and golf

How to enter