More travelers to hit the road

By Stephen Voss
Bloomberg News Service

A record 35.2 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the Memorial Day holiday this month, according to a forecast by the AAA auto club.

The number of travelers during the May 25-27 holiday period will rise almost

1 percent from 34.9 million last year as an increase in car trips more than offsets a drop in air travel, according to a survey of likely travelers conducted for the association.

An estimated 29.3 million people will travel by automobile, up 2 percent from last year, while the number traveling by air will dwindle by 7 percent to 4.1 million.

Air travel has declined since Sept. 11, when terrorists hijacked four jetliners and crashed them in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

The Sept. 11 attacks and the recession have had the biggest impact on business travel. About 18 percent of travelers expect to take a business trip this summer, down from 20 percent last year.

Business travelers, many of whom are using more video conferencing and Internet communications, aren't expected to return to the highways, airways and hotels at previous levels until at least 2003.

Those who do fly should see airfares about 8 percent below last summer, officials said. For motorists, gasoline pump prices will be far below record levels reached at this time last year.

The average price paid by U.S. motorists for regular gasoline fell 0.3 cent to $1.397 a gallon last week, according to the Web site for AAA. Prices for regular-grade gasoline rose to a record $1.718 a year ago, on May 15, 2001, AAA figures showed.

In Hawai'i, the average price per gallon for regular gas was $1.67, compared with $1.92 the same time a year ago.

The travel estimates were derived from a survey of 1,300 adults, which was conducted for the AAA by the Travel Industry Association of America.