Americans to Set Record Travel this Spring, TIA Predicts

Americans will take a record number of trips this spring, according to a new report by the Travel Industry Association (TIA), even though the overall increase in trips is expected to be only slightly higher than that of spring 2004.

TIA is estimating Americans will take 281 million person-trips of 50 miles or more one-way from home during the months of March, April and May. That represents a 1.2% increase from last spring when travelers took a record 277.5 million trips.

“Americans are upbeat,” said Suzanne Cook, TIA´s senior vice president of research. “Their travel intentions are healthy, they feel good about the economy and they feel positive about their own finances. These key factors point to a record spring travel season.”

Of the 281 million person trips projected for the spring travel season, leisure trips are expected to account for 223 million person trips, up 1% from the same time last year. The rest (47.1 million) will be for business/convention travel.

Should the projection hold, business/convention travel will be up 2% from spring 2004. However, that will not be enough to surpass the spring of 2001, when travelers took a record 48.1million business/convention trips.