On the Roads
Arrivalist predicts more than 44.7 million Americans will travel via automobile during the upcoming Labor Day holiday on Thursday through Monday. This is 4.2% increase from 2021 levels and even edges out 2019 Labor Day travel by 0.3%.
As demand for travel has flirted with pre-pandemic levels this summer, thousands of flight delays and cancellations have driven travelers to hit the road.
“Constant changes in location data collection practices make it even more challenging. We’re excited to give the industry trending data it can trust in the Daily Travel Index.”
“Finding accurate trending data in volatile travel markets is difficult,” said Cree Lawson, Arrivalist Founder and CEO. “Constant changes in location data collection practices make it even more challenging. We’re excited to give the industry trending data it can trust in the Daily Travel Index.”
Data from the Daily Travel Index continues to provide reliable year-over-year trending insights. The trending data is so reliable, in fact, that it can be accurately used to project upcoming holiday road trip patterns. Over the last three years, for example, Fourth of July travel forecasts from Arrivalist varied from actual holiday travel by as little as 0.7%, allowing travel marketers to plan for the allocation of resources during traditional peak seasons.
When determining this year’s Labor Day predictions, Arrivalist considered:
- Sentiment toward travel and COVID-19. Last year, the COVID-19 Delta variant played a significant role in reducing Labor Day travel. Currently, the virus has minimal impact on travel.
- The impact of gas price reductions over the last few weeks
- Reduced growth in inflation
- Influx of flight cancellations
“Travel continues to be in full swing,” said Balakumar Raghuraman, Vice President of Analytics and Innovation. “Historically, Labor Day is the peak travel period for road trips. With nearly one in four flights being delayed so far this year, we expect even more travelers to hit the road rather than the skies.”
About Arrivalist’s Daily Travel Index
The tool tracks U.S. travel patterns, providing consumers with timely updates within 48 hours of a specific date. Launched in April 2020, the platform was built as a free tool to help the travel industry track the pulse of the pandemic’s recovery. Earlier this year, Arrivalist updated the Daily Travel Index with three new improvements, including the addition of overnight stay data on the website, up to four years of trending travel data (2019-2022) available for free, and the ability to compare trending travel data across all 50 states.
Arrivalist’s methodology is based on a representative balanced panel of GPS signals representing road trips taken specifically in cars (excluding travel by air). A trip is measured as one where the user has traveled a minimum of 50 miles and spent a minimum of two hours at the destination. Commuter travel or other frequently repeated trips—i.e., cargo deliveries or other reoccurring activities—are excluded from the Daily Travel Index.
In the Skies
A summary from Patrick Surry, Chief Data Scientist at Hopper Media indicates that despite higher prices, 12.6 million passengers are scheduled to fly from U.S airports over the Labor Day holiday weekend.
The most booked destinations on the Hooper App are:
- Domestic airfare over Labor Day weekend will cost Americans an average of $278 round trip, a 23% increase compared to last year and up 20% compared to 2019 over the same holiday weekend.
- About 12.6 million passengers are scheduled to fly from U.S airports on Sept. 1 to Sept. 5, 2022 averaging about 2.5 million travelers per day over the holiday weekend.
- Hotel stays over Labor Day weekend average $189 per night, a 6% increase from the same weekend last year.
- Car rentals over Labor Day weekend will average $63 per day.
