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More Americans are expected to travel for Memorial Day weekend than last year, despite record gasoline prices, higher air fares, higher hotel fares, and a wave of covid infections. the result of accumulated demand that outweighs health problems and rising prices, according to industry experts. to say.
Surveys show that gas prices averaging up to $ 6 a gallon in some parts of the country and $ 4.60 across the country, 50 percent more than a year ago, have caused some travelers to be closer to home. However, many will look for cheaper hotels or reduce entertainment and eating out to afford a getaway, experts say.
“During these two years, we’ve missed family reunions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations, all of these things with friends and family,” said Amir Eylon, president of Longwoods International, a travel market research consulting firm. and tourism. “Now that fear of covid among travelers has been significantly reduced, and despite inflationary pressures, people are determined to get out of it.”
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Nationwide, AAA expects $ 39.2 million People, 8% more than last year and 92% of pre-pandemic levels, will travel during Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of what is expected to be a busy summer. Compared to last year’s holiday weekend, AAA expects a 4.6% increase in car travel, 25% growth in air travel and 200% growth in bus travel, train and cruises.
Meanwhile, the average ticket price for the lowest ticket is $ 184, up 6% from a year ago. Mid-range hotels charge an average of $ 230 per night, up 42 percent for their lowest rate, according to AAA. Daily rental car prices alone have fallen, 16 percent from last year, when vehicles were in short supply.
DC residents are paying higher gas costs than the national average ($ 4.84 per gallon), but they are still expected to block roads in the Washington area.
Maryland officials advise going to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the beaches of Eastern Shore in the early morning or evening. The Maryland Transportation Authority expects more than 330,000 vehicles to cross the bridge over the long weekend, roughly the same as the weekends before the Memorial Day pandemic.
An ominous sign: Last weekend, days before the holidays, Sunday’s westbound backups reached 5.5 miles, authorities said.
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Last year’s Memorial Day weekend marked the first major travel period after the distribution of coronavirus vaccines, but they were limited. Vaccines are widely available this year. In addition, experts in the travel industry say, some people who postpone travel have more savings to spend on higher costs. Some also booked plane tickets and hotel rooms months ago, before prices went up.
An April AAA poll found that more than 50 percent of DC residents said they plan to travel more this summer than last year, despite rising gas prices. More than half said they were less concerned about the pandemic, and about 1 in 3 said it would be their first major summer trip since 2019. Although most said they did not take the price into account. of gas when making plans, about 1 in 4 said they made fewer or shorter trips because of it, AAA said.
“I think this year, especially with the vaccines available and a lot of people vaccinated, a lot of people have a desire to travel,” said Ragina Ali, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Overwhelming and repressed demand for people to resume some kind of normalcy seems to be outweighing the costs.”
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Some motorcyclists who came out on Thursday grimaced at the price of filling up. However, none mentioned pandemic concerns or considerations to cancel plans due to gas costs. Traveling, according to many, seemed like something they had to do, despite the added expense.
At a Shell station in Stevensville, Maryland, where regular gas cost $ 4.49 a gallon, Amalya Dixon bristled at $ 50 to fill up, even with her tank starting at a full quarter. Dixon, 61, said she and her daughter, Lina Flefel, 26, were driving to Chincoteague Island, Virginia, where Dixon had been traveling since Silver Spring. The moving van was not far behind.
“I had to move,” Dixon, an artist, said of her trip. “But I am constantly looking at gas prices, trying to find the cheapest. … One of the things I look forward to at Chincoteague is cycling everywhere. ”
Dixon said he also plans to go to a family wedding in Maine in late July, but will likely reduce the time to eat out and other delicacies to save.
“I have to go,” he said. “It will affect the way I spend my money in other ways. I can’t spend money on other things if I have to use it on gas.”
Several recent surveys, including those of travel consultants and industry groups, show that concerns about gas prices have outpaced those of coronavirus.
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In a recent Washington Post-Schar School poll, 72 percent of Americans said they “definitely” or “probably” plan to take a vacation this summer. About 6 out of 10 said gas prices were a “major factor” in their plans, while about 1 in 4 cited coronavirus concerns, according to a survey conducted in late April. early May.
In Maryland, an automatic increase in gasoline tax will make prices even higher from July 1, adding 6.6 cents per gallon. The tax, which is tied to inflation and is charged in bulk, will go from 36.1 cents per gallon to 42.7 cents.
Democrats leading the state General Assembly did not support a special session to prevent the increase or offer another temporary gasoline tax surplus, saying these efforts offer marginal relief for motorists. while starving the state of the money needed for roads, traffic and bridges.
In Virginia, plans by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to suspend a planned 26.2-cent gasoline tax increase and suspend the tax altogether for three months have stalled in lengthy budget negotiations between the House led by Republicans and Democrats. – Controlled Senate. The General Assembly returns to Richmond on Wednesday to vote on a compromise budget bill, too late for Memorial Day motorists.
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The cost of filling is playing in tourist fields.
Jessica Waters, a spokeswoman for Ocean City, highlighted the proximity of Maryland’s beach town, “less than a tank away,” from millions of residents in DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia.
“Gas prices are higher, but a trip to Ocean City is still a lot cheaper than traveling to most other beach destinations,” Waters said. “It’s definitely cheaper than a plane ticket.”
Still, airlines say they expect large crowds. Bookings have increased by 3 percent compared to the same period in May 2019, but air travelers spend 24 percent more, according to data collected by Adobe Analytics used by companies in the travel industry.
United Airlines said this Memorial Day weekend will be one of the busiest this year. The company said it expected 2.6 million people to fly between Thursday and Tuesday, 50 percent more than last year and about 90 percent of the number that flew during the 2019 Memorial Day travel period.
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Delta Air Lines said it will carry approximately 2.5 million customers over the weekend, a 25% increase. However, the company announced reductions in its summer schedule on Thursday, saying it would cut about 100 flights a day between July 1 and August 7.
United, Delta and several U.S. carriers are still struggling with staff shortages as they strive to replace the estimated 50,000 workers who left the industry during the pandemic. As a result, despite increased demand, many airlines are flying with reduced schedules as they try to avoid the kind of delays and cancellations that disrupted the plans of tens and thousands of passengers last summer and fall.
These dynamics (fewer flights combined with higher demand) are driving up ticket prices, putting flights out of reach for some.
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Ellie Romero, a 25-year-old Los Angeles resident who works in communications, said she had been saving for a trip to Atlanta this summer to visit a family she hadn’t seen since the pandemic began. When he checked in in March, the return plane ticket cost about $ 300. When he was about to buy a ticket in late April, he said he was surprised to find that the lowest fare had almost tripled.
“I saw it and I thought, ‘It’s not happening at all,'” Romero said.
Travel experts say that history shows that gas price spikes, such as during the Great Recession and after September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks often shorten, but do not stop, the great northern road trip. -American.
In a recent study, Eylon’s company found that nearly 60 percent of respondents said rising gas prices would “affect” or “severely affect” their travel plans over the next six months. including making more or less short trips. Only 6% said they were canceling travel plans, slightly above the typical 5% cancellation rate for family emergencies, work demands and other issues, he said.
“They will keep traveling,” he said. “They will only find ways to reduce their spending to reallocate their travel budget.”
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Larry Roessner, 70, of Myrtle Beach, SC, laughed with apparent disbelief when asked how much it cost to fill his caravan as he and his wife, Darleen, 66, drove to the Atlantic City area. . He paid $ 159 at Stevensville Shell Station on Thursday, though it started with the deposit partially full.
Roessner estimated the gas for the two days …