The upward trend in travel seen this year is expected to continue through the end-of-year holiday season, with nearly 100 million Americans expected to travel 50 miles or more between Dec. 23 and Jan. 4, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.
"This year more Americans will join with friends and family to celebrate the holidays and ring in the New Year than ever before," said Christine Sarames Delise, a spokeswoman for the driver advocacy organization. "Americans continue to look forward with increasing consumer confidence, rather than look back at the recession. This brighter outlook, along with lower gas prices, is helping to drive expected travel volumes to the highest level for the year-end holidays."
The national average price of gasoline stood at $2.55 per gallon on Monday, AAA said — the lowest level in five years.
The 98.6 million Americans expected to travel for the end-of-year holidays is the largest estimate on record since AAA began its count in 2001. It is a four percent increase over last year, the highest growth rate since 2009.
Nearly 91 percent of the expected travelers, or 89.5 million, will drive, AAA estimated, an increase of 4.1 percent over last year. About 5.7 million travelers will fly, an increase of 1 percent over last year.
Part of the increase this year is due to the holiday travel period being extended by a day, AAA said, thanks to Christmas landing on a Thursday "offering travelers more options for departures and return trips," AAA said.
"This flexibility makes it possible for more people to fit holiday travel into their schedules."
High travel volumes were also forecast this year by AAA for the Thanksgiving, Labor Day and Memorial Day holidays.
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