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AAA Expects 1.7 Percent Increase in Holiday Travel

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Americans will travel inpotentially record-high numbers this Christmas-New Year'sholiday, despite travel costs that are up nearly across theboard. AAA estimates that 63.50 million Americans will travel 50miles or more from home this holiday , a 1.7percent increase from last year's 62.42 million travelers."Double-digit increases from last year in hotel rates, airfares, and gas prices won't keep people from traveling in recordnumbers over the holidays," said Wendy Weigel, vice president,AAA Minneapolis Travel. "Even with two great Christmas getawayspots -- Cancun and New Orleans -- still recovering fromhurricanes, more than 63 million of us will hit the skies, seas,and highways for the holiday ." Travel bymotor vehicle has also risen 1.7%. Holiday auto travelers willfind gas prices nationwide currently averaging $2.20 for agallon of self-serve regular gasoline -- down approximately 90cents from the records set over Labor Day weekend, but still 38cents higher than a year ago. 14% of travelers plan to travel byairplane, up 1.6 percent from last year. A projected 3.21million travelers (5 percent) will go by train, bus, or othermode of transportation, up slightly from 3.13 million a yearago. "Airports will stay busy across Christmas, Hanukkah, andNew Year's as Americans visit family, escape to tropicalislands, head for cruise ships, hit the ski slopes, and more forthe holidays," said Connie Patava, travel services regionalmanager, AAA Minnesota/Iowa. "Unlike the traditional 'obligatorytrips' to visit relatives at Thanksgiving, December offers achance for people to take get-away vacations." Travelers willalso face much higher prices


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for hotels and airfares, accordingto AAA's Leisure Travel Index. Holiday hotel rates are up 14percent for AAA-rated Three Diamond hotels, as strong demandallows hoteliers to raise rates to near their Christmas 2001peak. Airfares are up 11 percent from last year, but remainbelow their peak levels during the 2000 holidays. Rental carrates are down on average about 2 percent from their top priceslast Christmas. "Travelers waiting to make Christmas plans untilthe last minute are finding much higher rates and feweroptions," added Weigel. "Hotel, airline, and car rentalreservations made at aaa.com for this holiday period were bookedan average of 53 days in advance -- nearly double last year's29-day lead time." Where are travelers headed? The top 10destinations for hotel bookings at aaa.com for the last twoweeks of December are: 1. Orlando; 2. Las Vegas; 3. LosAngeles/Anaheim; 4. New York City; 5. San Francisco; 6. SanDiego; 7. Chicago; 8. Ft. Lauderdale; 9. Boston; and 10.Nashville. The greatest number of Christmas-New Year's autotravelers will originate in the Southeast with 13.34 million,followed by the West, 13.11 million; Midwest, 10.35 million; theGreat Lakes, 8.19 million; and the Northeast, 6.54 million.Small towns and rural areas are the expected destination for 37percent of holidaytravelers , followed closely by cities, 35 percent. Oceansand beaches should see 11 percent of travelers, followed bymountain areas, 8 percent; 2 percent for lake areas, 2 percentfor state/national parks and 2 percent for theme/amusementparks. Another 3 percent responded with other and 1 percentdidn't know. Source: AAA About the author: None

Written by: AAA

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