Over 115 Million Christmas Travelers

Dec 12, 2019 at 12:23 pm by Unknown

More Americans than ever on record - 115.6 million - will travel this holiday season, from Saturday, Dec. 21 through Wednesday, Jan. 1. That is the most in nearly 20 years since AAA began tracking in 2000, and represents an increase of 3.9% over last year, or 4.3 million more people packing up their sleighs for a holiday getaway. More than 104 million of those holiday travelers will drive to their destinations and, INRIX, a global transportation analytics company, expects delays to be the worst on Thursday, Dec. 26, with afternoon delays reaching nearly double congestion-free drive times in major U.S. cities.

"Holiday cheer is at an all-time high this year, with unemployment at historically low levels, and noted improvements in both disposable income and household net worth," said Paula Twidale, vice president, AAA Travel. "Travelers should be getting used to crowded highways and airports, as this marks the eighth straight year of new record-high travel volumes for the year-end holidays."More Americans than ever on record will drive this holiday season.
Total Travelers:
  • Nationwide: 115.6 million will travel this holiday season, more than ever on record.
  • Tennessee: 2.76 million Tennesseans will travel this year, an increase of 4.4% over last year, and the most on record--ever.

Theme parks, warm-weather destinations & NYC top holiday getaways

Theme parks in Orlando and southern California, other warm-weather locales, and the iconic holiday destination New York City top the list of 10 most popular destinations in the U.S. for the year-end holidays, based on advance AAA Travel bookings:

  1. Orlando, FL
  2. Anaheim, CA
  3. Honolulu, HI
  4. Kahului, Maui, HI
  5. Las Vegas, NV
  6. Ft. Lauderdale, FL
  7. New York, NY
  8. Miami, FL
  9. Tampa, FL
  10. Phoenix, AZ
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