Holiday travel forecast returns to pre-pandemic, record level
Dec 11, 2024, 5:00 PM
FILE: Traffic moves along on I-215 in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
(Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — AAA forecasts 119.3 million people will take part in holiday travel plans of at least 50 miles. That’s just barely over the record set during the same time frame in 2019.
In a news release, the agency wrote that the vast majority of those travelers, 90%, planned to drive. Nationwide, 107 million Americans will travel by road. Here in Utah, 2 million of our roughly 3.2 million residents planned to drive, AAA reported.
Related: Utah’s gas prices are falling, but for how long?
A key factor for holiday travel plans could be gas prices. According to AAA, gas prices hit a three-year low earlier this month, and they’ve dropped more since then. As of Wednesday afternoon, the AAA Fuel Gauge report showed Utahns are paying an average of $3 per gallon of regular unleaded, a drop of about 18 cents in the last month.
Air travel will likely also hit record numbers, with 7.85 million Americans flying between the Saturday before Christmas and New Year’s Day. For comparison, 7.5 million Americans flew last year, according to AAA. That’s despite roughly 4% pricier airfare over the last year.
Related: Salt Lake International Airport introduces new budget-friendly travel options
According to AAA, Americans will also seek out alternative holiday travel plans to automobiles and planes. Nationwide, just shy of 4.5 million people are expected to use other modes of transportation, from busses and trains to holiday cruises. AAA reports those alternative travel modes all represent increases compared to last year, but cruises saw the largest amount of growth, 37%.
