Holiday travel expected to be up from last year.
AAA projects 93.3 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home during the year-end holidays, that’s an increase of 1.6 percent from last year. The year-end holiday travel period is defined as Saturday, December 22 to Tuesday, January 1, 2013. “Here in Wisconsin just under 2 million people are expected to travel.”
Pam Moen with AAA Wisconsin says the year-end travel season is by far the longest. The summer holidays and Thanksgiving are similar in length. They typically average 40 to 45 million people traveling for those holidays. “By comparison the year end holiday travel period … is much longer, it’s about twice as long as the other holiday travel periods. We see about double the number of people travel for the Christmas through New Year’s holiday travel period compared to the other holidays during the year.”
The auto club says 90 percent of travelers (84.4 million) are expected to travel by automobile. Moen advises travelers to keep an eye on the weather and allow extra time to get to your destination in order to ensure safe travelling.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:31