Holiday travel expected to reach all-time high

The auto club is projecting that the number of year-end holiday travelers will top 100 million for the first time on record, meaning almost one in three Americans will take a trip this holiday season. More than 90 percent of travelers (91.3 million people) will drive to their holiday destinations – an increase of 1.4 percent over previous year.

What’s filling our travel stockings this year?

While prices are slightly higher in North Carolina, coming in around $1.97 state wide, AAA predicts prices will continue to decline in 2016.

Gas prices will be drastically lower over the holiday season than 2014 in most areas of the country. AAA Two Diamond lodgings are expected to fetch an average of $119, which is an 11 percent increase from past year. He says an extended period of below average gas prices is playing a big role.

This year marks the seventh consecutive year of growth for end-of-year holiday travel.

As for helping stranded drivers this season, AAA expects to rescue almost 900,000 motorists during the 12-day year-end holiday travel period, with the primary reasons being dead batteries, lockouts and flat tires. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s Traffic Safety Culture Index, 1 in 5 licensed drivers (21%), who drink at least occasionally, reported they’ve driven even though they believed their alcohol level might have been close to, or possibly over, the legal limit in the past year. “With most people hitting the roads during this time, we want to stress the importance of buckling up, avoiding drinking and driving, and eliminating distractions behind the wheel such as cell phone usage”.

AAA says an improving economy is making people more likely to travel.

AAA’s projections are based on economic forecasting and research by IHS Global Insight.