Auto Club: Labor Day Travel Drops From Last Year

(LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31, 2009) – This year’s late holiday date, the economy and an unusually high number of travelers during the 2008 Labor Day weekend are combining to create an expected 13 percent drop in the number of local travelers this holiday compared to last year, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

A projected 2.94 million Southern Californians will take Labor Day trips this year, down from last year’s 3.38 million travelers. Of those, 2.34 million, or 79 percent, are expected to drive to holiday destinations, while 169,000 will go by air.

Statewide, 4.7 million travelers are expected – also a 13 percent decrease compared to last year’s 5.4 million travelers. Of the California travelers, 3.76 million are expected to go by car and 271,000 are expected to take plane trips. And nationally, holiday travel also is projected to drop by 13 percent, from 45.1 million to 39.1 million this year.

The significant projected travel decrease from last year cannot be blamed totally on the economy, according to AAA. Travel data providers for AAA say that much of the decline is because of the fact that late Labor Day holidays typically lead to a lower number of travelers. Sept. 7 is the latest Labor Day date, which is when the holiday falls this year.

Another factor, according to IHS Global Insight, was record gas prices in spring and early summer of 2008 that caused would-be Memorial Day and July Fourth travelers to postpone their summer getaways until Labor Day, when gas prices had dropped below $4 a gallon in Southern California.

As a result, despite last year’s economic troubles, 2008 was the second-largest Labor Day holiday travel period for Southern Californians, second only to the 2003 holiday. In 2003, a similar phenomenon occurred: many travelers anxious about the start of the Iraq war postponed their Memorial Day and July Fourth vacation plans, then traveled during Labor Day in record numbers. The next Labor Day weekend in 2004 saw a significant decline in travelers – from 3.5 million to 2.2 million in Southern California – both because the previous year had set a record and because the 2004 holiday occurred relatively late, on Sept. 6.

“There’s no doubt we are seeing the effects of the economy on holiday travel, but significant other factors are also playing a role in the downturn,” said Auto Club spokesperson Jeffrey Spring. “Even though airfares are 17 percent cheaper than they were a year ago, local air travel for Labor Day is projected to decline nearly 20 percent compared to last year – and much of that may be due to families who are reluctant to travel long distances after school has already started.”

The top five destinations for Southern California travelers this holiday weekend, according to a survey of travel agents in the Auto Club’s 75 district offices, are:

1) Las Vegas

2) San Diego

3) San Francisco

4) Central Coast

5) Yosemite