AAA: 4.3M New Englanders expected to travel this holiday season

YEAR-END holiday travel is expected to top 100 million travelers nationwide, according to AAA Northeast. / COURTESY AAA NORTHEAST
YEAR-END holiday travel is expected to top 100 million travelers nationwide, according to AAA Northeast. / COURTESY AAA NORTHEAST

PROVIDENCE – More than 4.3 million New Englanders are expected to travel this holiday season, a 2.2 percent increase compared with last year, AAA Northeast said.
More than 3.8 million New Englanders are expected to drive to their destinations, 2.4 percent more than in 2014, AAA said.
Nationwide, AAA said it is expecting the number of year-end holiday travelers to top 100 million this year for the first time.
“Rising incomes and low gas prices are helping to fill stockings this year, and more people than ever will choose to spend those savings on travel,” Lloyd P. Albert, AAA Northeast’s senior vice president of public and government affairs, said in a statement.
AAA said that nearly one in three Americans will take a trip this holiday season, with 100.5 million expected to travel 50 miles or more from home, representing a 1.4 percent increase over last year and the seventh consecutive year of year-end holiday travel growth.
The year-end holiday travel period is defined as Dec. 23 to Jan. 3, according to AAA.
More than 90 percent of travelers – 91.3 million people – will drive to holiday destinations, an increase of 1.4 percent compared with last year. Air travel is expected to rise 0.7 percent, with 5.8 million Americans flying to holiday destinations. Travel by other modes of transportation, including cruises, trains and buses, will climb 2.4 percent to 3.4 million travelers.
According to AAA’s Leisure Travel Index, airfares for the top 40 domestic flight routes are 6 percent lower this holiday season, falling to an average of $174 round-trip. However, rates for AAA Three Diamond Rated lodgings will be 4 percent higher this year, with travelers spending an average of $150 per night. Daily car rental rates will average $68, 3 percent higher than last year’s holiday travel season.
In addition, AAA said it expects to rescue nearly 900,000 motorists during the 12-day year-end holiday travel period. Dead batteries, lockouts and flat tires are expected to dominate calls. AAA recommends motorists check the condition of their battery and tires before traveling.
AAA also advises drivers to exercise caution about their safety and the safety of others on the roadways.
According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s Traffic Safety Culture Index, one in five licensed drivers – 21 percent – who drink at least occasionally reported having driven when they thought their alcohol level might have been close to, or possibly over, the legal limit in the past year.
Said Albert, “Ninety-seven percent of licensed drivers consider it unacceptable to drive when they may have had too much to drink, yet there is an average of one alcohol-impaired driving death every 53 minutes.”

AAA’s projections are based on economic forecasting and research by Colorado-based IHS Global Insight.

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