Gas and airfare prices have jumped. Americans are traveling this weekend anyway

By Chris Isidore, CNN

(CNN) — Americans are packing the highways and airports this holiday weekend – even with gas and airfares significantly more expensive than last year.

AAA projected that a record number of Americans are traveling this weekend, with 45 million either flying or driving at least 50 miles from home, up from last year’s record of 44.8 million .

“When it comes to travel, it’s one of the only things I’ll treat myself on,” James Smith, who’s flying this weekend, told CNN. Smith spent $550 to fly from New Mexico to Newark, New Jersey, for a holiday weekend with friends at the Jersey shore.

Airfares are up more than 20% compared with last year, according to an estimate from travel booking site Kayak as well as data from major airlines. And gas prices nationally averaged $4.55 a gallon as of the Friday heading into the weekend, up $1.38 from last year and up 53% since the start of the Iran war.

The fact that travel isn’t letting up despite the higher costs isn’t a surprise, said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics consulting company.

“Survey data is indicating there’s a lot of concern about gas prices,” he told CNN. “But there’s a disconnect between how people feel and how they act.”

Historically, gas spikes, like in 2022, haven’t dropped leisure or business travel without other factors also weighing in. That’s partly because the people who struggle the most with higher gas prices or airfares weren’t traveling much to begin with.

“More than half of leisure hotel spending is by people making $150,000 or more,” Sacks said.

But some hotel bookings appear to be softening. Laura Lee Blake told CNN more travelers could be skipping the hotel portion of their stay. Blake is CEO of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, whose 20,000 members, mostly of South Asian descent, own about 60% of US hotels.

“Travelers maybe skip an overnight stay to save money,” she said. “Maybe they visit family members along the way, or they stay with friends instead of booking a hotel.”

Frantz Simon and his family planned to do just that this weekend.

At a Jersey Turnpike rest stop on Thursday, Frantz, his wife, Mildred, and their two children were packed into a rented SUV to make a 12-hour drive from Long Island to Georgia for his grandson’s high school graduation. He said he wouldn’t consider missing the event: “It’s a family outing,” he said.

But to save money, they’re driving straight through in one day and staying with family in Georgia.

In June Lake, California, near the entrance of Yosemite National Park, Connie Lear manages rental reservations for 42 units, mostly condos and private homes. She said many of her regular renters are cutting back, even if they’re still coming.

“Instead of doing seven days, they’re doing five or four,” she said.

And some people are finding ways to travel without spending more. John Mercagliano, who lives in a Philadelphia suburb, nixed plans to vacation in London with friends next week because of the cost. Instead, he is using his miles on American Airlines to fly to Arizona to vacation with the same friends, who live there.

“I considered it (not traveling at all), but I wanted to see them, and I didn’t want to do nothing at all,” he said.

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