Rising Gas Prices Could Affect Summer Drive Travel

Airfares aren’t the only casualty of rising fuel costs.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) is advising drivers wanting to go on vacation this summer via their car to start planning now because they don’t anticipate gas prices will drop, according to USA Today.

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A recent study conducted by AAA found that drivers are definitely taking gas prices into account as they plan their vacations this year. The survey of more than 1,000 U.S.-based travelers found that 52 percent of them said they would take a family vacation during the summer – and 58 percent of those said they would adjust their itineraries if gas prices continued an upward trajectory and made it cost-prohibitive.

“There’s a little bit of a chameleon aspect going on,” Paula Twidale, senior vice president of travel for AAA, told USA Today. “Some things may be changing, but not necessarily canceling.”

Indeed, most travel stakeholders believe people will travel in record numbers, or at least match pre-pandemic numbers from 2019, which is just about the same thing.

Airline bookings for the rest of the spring and this summer are outpacing bookings from 2019. Twidale told USAT that bookings to Hawaii, Florida and Mexico are surpassing 2019 levels. And Vrbo said earlier this month that summer property rentals are up more than 15 percent compared to last year, when the pent-up demand for travel first began after almost a year-and-a-half of COVID.

“It’s all in the planning,” Twidale said. “I would say book early.”