Americans won’t let the sluggish economy and spiking gas prices keep them home this Labor Day, according to AAA, which says holiday travel will hit a post-recession peak.
AAA says 2.9 percent more people will travel at least 50 miles from home this holiday than last year – 33 million hitting the road from Thursday, Aug. 30, to Monday, Sept. 3. That’s up from 32.1 million over the same holiday last year. If those projections materialize, it would be the highest travel volume since 2008, when the recession began curtailing Labor Day travel. It would be the third projected increase in holiday travel in 2012, following a 1.2 percent increase for Memorial Day travel and a 4.9 percent increase for Independence Day. This news comes as gas prices rise for the seventh consecutive week.