People often travel to visit family during Christmas and New Year’s. But even more people travel for Thanksgiving. This week, an expected 1.4 million North Carolinians will travel 50 miles or more from their homes.
“I would say it’s the holiday that has the most travel volume,” said Tiffany Wright, Public Relations Manager for AAA Carolinas. “And if you look at the fact that it’s a five-day holiday, travel period. Talking about from Wednesday through Sunday. So, yeah, it’s the most-traveled holiday without a doubt.”
AAA has been studying Thanksgiving travel trends for the past 16 years. Wright said, even though Thanksgiving means a lot of traffic and a lot of travel, destinations don’t change much.
“It kind of remains the same,” she said. “We don’t see as much fluctuation as we do with the other holidays, Memorial Day, or other holidays where folks will go, ‘Okay, let’s go to D.C.’ or ‘Let’s go to the beach’ for that matter so yeah. They pretty much stay the same for Thanksgiving.”
Wright also said this year is a good year to pick for travel, since gas prices are expected to stay at about $2.10 per gallon.
“It’s actually the second lowest gas prices we’ve had for Thanksgiving, in I would say, eight years,” she said. “Last year was just a little bit cheaper.”
Last year at this time, gas was about $2.08 per gallon.
Wright said this year’s price is surprising, since both North and South Carolina experienced gas shortages and a price spike after a pipeline leak in September.
Fuel prices climbed again earlier this month after a gasoline explosion in Alabama. Wright said, however, if right now is any indication, gas prices shouldn’t change much for travelers between now and the Christmas season.
“We’re back to normal, so to speak,” she said, “And that’s a good thing because as you look to the Christmas travel, I suspect that we’re going to see some of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen for Christmas.”
AAA also encourages travelers this week to obey traffic laws and the speed limit to ensure safety for everyone on the road.
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