Utahns and other Mountain West residents are expected to hit the roads in large numbers during the upcoming Labor Day weekend, despite the sluggish economy and high gasoline prices.
AAA Utah is forecasting that more than 2.4 million Mountain West residents will travel 50 miles or more from their homes this coming three-day weekend, an increase of 3.2 percent compared with last year.
“While many Mountain West residents are still caught in fragile economic affairs, they will be traveling, but cutting back on other expenses,” AAA Utah spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclough said in a statement announcing the results of that organization’s Labor Day travel survey.
She said many of those surveyed expected to cut back on their shopping, take a shorter trip, travel by an alternative mode of transportation and stay with family and friends to avoid higher expenditures over the holiday weekend.
This year, as in the past, holiday trips by automobile are expected to be the preferred mode of transportation with more than 2 million Mountain West residents driving to reach their holiday destinations. That will be a 3.4 percent increase compared to 2011.
More than 200,000 Mountain West residents are planning to travel by air, an increase of 3.9 percent compared with last year. Another 200,000 are expected to travel by other modes of transportation, such as bus and rail, Fairclough said.В Salt Lake Tribune