37.9 Million Road Trippers In The United States Expected for Memorial Day Weekend

Arrivalist, a location data startup, expects that 37.9 million American adults will travel by car over Memorial Day weekend. This volume is somewhat higher than the Memorial Day traffic averages for 2019 and 2021. Overall, road traffic in the United States is expected to be 8.5 percent higher in 2022 than in 2021.

The character of road travel has also altered in the last year, according to Arrivalist’s findings. The following was noted by the firm in April 2022: Increased overnight stays; decreased day trips, An increase in road journeys of 250 miles or more (perhaps due to a 26 percent increase in airfares), and an Increased volume of midweek travel

“While rising gas prices are an important factor in determining travel plans, we’ve observed that the recent increase in airfare motivates travelers to take longer road trips,” said Lawson.

Because Memorial Day comes on a weekend, the growth in midweek travel between 2019 and 2022 is especially crucial in estimating Memorial Day traffic. Over the last 28 days, road trips beginning on a Friday in 2022 are 1% higher than in 2019. Road trips that begin on any day of the week, on the other hand, are up 6.6 percent from 2019.

“We expect a significant amount of road trip volume over the Memorial Day Weekend. Our forecast shows that the travel volume may even exceed 2019 levels by a small margin,” said Balakumar Raghuraman, vice president of analytics.

Arrivalist uses the following elements when making holiday travel predictions: The Daily Travel Index’s trending information, TSA identification numbers, Gasoline costs, and COVID-19 case tally.

Arrivalist updated the Daily Travel Index earlier this year, adding three new features: overnight stay data on the website, up to four years of trending travel data (2019-2022), and the option to compare trending travel data across all 50 states.