Thanksgiving Weekend Travel Expected To Hit New High

Thanksgiving is just a little over a week away and many people are making plans to travel for that holiday weekend. In fact, the AAA says they expect a record amount of people will be traveling over the holiday weekend. In Tennessee alone, AAA expects that more than 1.9 million will travel 50 miles or more for the holiday. That’s an all-time high for Thanksgiving and more than 30,000 more travelers than last year.

Nationwide, travel is expected to set new records as well, with an estimated 79.9 million heading over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s house. The 2% growth equates to 1.7 million more people than the previous record set last year, and 2 million more than in 2019. However, its worth keeping in mind that traditionally the AAA has the holiday travel period from Wednesday through Sunday. This year, they have changed that to a full seven days, Tuesday, November 26 to Monday, December 2.
Gas prices being lower could be part of the reason for the increased travel as prices are about 20 cents a gallon cheaper than this time last year.

Thanksgiving air travel is also expected to set a new record. Nationally, AAA projects 5.84 million people will fly domestically this holiday. That’s an increase of 2% compared to last year and a nearly 11% increase over 2019.