Memorial Day Holiday Weekend Driving & Travel Price Trends

Despite higher gas prices, AAA estimates nearly 42-million Americans will travel this Memorial Day weekend. That’s a five-percent increase from last year and the highest number of travelers in more than a dozen years. AAA Spokesman Don Redman says about 37-million travelers will hit the road.

“There’s consumer confidence right now that that is this is a very robust economy and traveling, even though gasoline is currently selling in Louisiana about 15 cents more than this time last year.″

Just over three million people are expected to fly to their destination next weekend and travel by train, bus or cruise ships is up 2 percent. He says families are seeing some added incentives this summer with almost a 7 percent decrease in airfare prices, 11 percent in car rentals, and depending on the hotel, travelers could save about 14 percent compared to last year. He says if gas prices continue to increase it could affect travel.

“If those higher prices are sustained or if they go even higher to three dollars a gallon and sustain at that as we had seen in previous years, we may see how that then correlates into less travel.”

With the abundance of travelers this weekend, commuters normally taking the interstate can expect some delays today and tomorrow afternoon.

“If you can plan an alternative route, you may want to contemplate that. Otherwise, do know that you may be in traffic for longer periods than you expected, just because of the congestion and the number of people getting out, leaving work and leaving for vacation.”

Categories: Acadiana News

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