AAA predicting biggest Thanksgiving travel rush in 9 years

Just over 90 percent of D.C. -area travelers will hit the road by car-that’s a almost six percent increase, or 61,600 more people than previous year. “Driven by rising wages and a falling unemployment rate, many consumers are willing to supplement their discretionary income with borrowed money — a clear indicator of their positive future outlook”, Conde said.

“We are seeing consumers extend themselves a bit, which is very good for discretionary decisions like travel”, Norton said. About 3.69 million will be flying to their Thanksgiving destination, up 1.6 percent from previous year. AAA and IHS Markit estimate that 48.7 million travelers will take to USA skies, highways and railways during five-day holiday period between Wednesday and Sunday.

About 3.69 million people will fly and 1.44 million will take a train, cruise or some other mode of transportation.

As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 56 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. The Washington area will also see a six percent increase in the number of residents traveling to their holiday destinations by automobiles. “Tennessee gas prices should fall below $2 a gallon this week”. The average rate for a AAA Two Diamond Rated hotel is four percent higher than a year ago, at $123 per night. But give it another week-and-a-half to get to Thanksgiving. White says we are seeing a daily slide in fuel prices due to lower crude oil costs.

“Every year since 2008, when everything tanked with the recession, travel has steadily increased”. The London-based information provider teamed with AAA in 2009 to jointly analyze travel trends during major holidays. Flights from Chicago to Santo Domingo are down more than 40% year over year and flights from NY to Punta Cana are down 25%. According to AAA, four of the top ten destinations are west coast cities.

Across the nation, San Diego is expected to be the third most visited destination, just behind Las Vegas and San Francisco, based on reservations made on AAA’s online booking site.

More than 48 million are expected to travel for Thanksgiving, according to new projections released by AAA Mid-Atlantic.