Lower Fuel Prices Expected to Push Memorial Day Travel to 10-Year High
U.S. travel over the May 25 Memorial Day weekend is poised to reach a 10-year high as Americans with more money in their pockets are lured onto the roads by lower prices at the pump.
About 37.2 million Americans will travel more than 49 miles from May 21 to May 25, a 4.7% increase from last year’s holiday and the second-highest level in AAA data. Trip-takers totaled a record 44 million in 2005, the Heathrow, Florida-based motoring club said May 8. About nine in 10 people are expected to drive.
Retail gasoline prices are below year-earlier levels by more than $1 a gallon, dragged down by oil prices that collapsed amid a global glut of crude. That’ll translate into $700 in savings for the typical American household this year, based on U.S. government forecasts. Relief at the pumps and falling unemployment will combine to boost holiday travel spending, AAA said.
Gasoline prices averaged $2.744 nationally in the Department of Energy report issued May 19. That's 92.1 cents below the same week last year.
“Many Americans are trading in their snow boots for flip-flops and making plans to start the season with a vacation getaway,” AAA President Marshall Doney said in an e-mailed statement.
Air travel is forecast to rise by 2.5% from 2014 to 2.6 million passengers.
