End-of-summer travelers will likely take to the roads just like they did before there was a pandemic, according to a spokesperson for the American Automobile Association.
“AAA is expecting the Labor Day holiday to be back to pre-pandemic levels,” said Tracy Noble, spokesperson for AAA in Greater Hartford. “We saw an increase in holiday travel for both the Memorial Day and the Independence Day holidays, and we’re expecting people to end the summer with a bang. So they’re going to be taking those last summer road trips, and … the roads are going to be very busy.”
AAA doesn’t specifically track Labor Day numbers. That said, it predicted increased travel over Memorial Day and record-high car travel for the July 4th holiday, despite high gas prices. An AAA poll from early July showed that Connecticut drivers were still planning road trips and that gas prices didn’t deter them. So, given recent travel trends, Noble says she’s confident in the Labor Day assessment.
“Starting with Labor Day a year ago, we saw an increase in travel, and then, of course, through the winter holidays, Thanksgiving and then on to the year-end holidays,” Noble said. “Every holiday has seen an uptick coming out of the pandemic, so we’re not expecting anything different for Labor Day this year.”
Noble said that the recent cancellations and delays in airline travel have also encouraged more consumers to take the car. And she said gas prices don’t seem to have affected that decision much.
“Despite the record-high gas prices that we saw all summer, road travel was still the No. 1 way that people got around,” she said. “We’ve seen this entire summer that people just had pent-up energy to travel. So they had stopped traveling through the summer of 2020, even some residual into 2021, people were, you know, kind of dipping their toe back in. But for 2022, people were traveling with a vengeance.”
One factor that could drive some increased travel in Connecticut — some schools in the region go back later than schools in other parts of the country. So, Noble said, Labor Day could be a reason for one last road trip before classes start.
