By Matt Kelley (Radio Iowa)
Long-range weather forecasts predict favorable conditions in Iowa for Thanksgiving next week, while the travel forecast indicates it’ll be a very busy holiday on Iowa’s roads.
Brian Ortner, spokesman for AAA-Iowa, says their estimates are showing a significant boost in Thanksgiving travelers for our region of the Midwest, which contains Iowa and five other states.
“The projection is four-million travelers out of the region, including Iowans, are going to be traveling 50 miles or more during the holiday travel period,” Ortner says. “It’s the fourth highest forecast on record for our region since 2005, and that means about 2% more, about 85,000 more travelers over this coming holiday than last year.”
In the months since the COVID-19 pandemic ended, we’ve seen a steady increase in travel numbers for Iowa and across the country, as Ortner says many people are taking a “YOLO” attitude.
“Back in late August, there was an initial survey done of our AAA members, asking them why they’re traveling now and why they’re traveling in more numbers, and a lot of them said because it’s the ‘You Only Live Once’ belief, and people want to get out and spend time with friends and family.”
When people make plans to take a trip, gasoline prices often won’t make an impact once their decision is made, but Ortner says it’s a nice bonus when pump prices fall in correspondence with a holiday.
“If we look at the price per gallon today, on average across the state, we’re at $3.05,” Ortner says. “That’s a great number and there are some spots around the state that are even less than that $3 level. We compare that to a year ago at this time, we were at $3.51 a gallon so, more than 40 cents difference.”
The motor club says about four-point-three million people in our region will be traveling over Thanksgiving, with three-point-eight million going by motor vehicle and another 231,000 will be flying. “We’re at a new high for what we consider ‘other travel,’ so that’s cruises, trains, bus and that sort of thing,” Ortner says, “and a lot of folks are heading for those destination cruises. That number is up almost 13% over last year.”
Nationwide, AAA projects 55.4-million people will be traveling at least 50 miles from home over the four-day Thanksgiving holiday.
