Drew Dixon
As Thanksgiving Day approaches, AAA Florida Auto Club is projecting a noticeable drop in holiday travel this year because of the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
Officials with the motor club said they expect a 5.4% drop in Thanksgiving Day travel through next Sunday in the Sunshine State. In raw numbers, an estimated 2.76 million Floridians will engage in some form of travel this year during the Thanksgiving break. That’s down from the estimated 2.91 million people who traveled during the Thanksgiving holiday period in 2019.
Increasing numbers in COVID-19 cases is simply spooking many Floridians from traveling during the festive feast period.
“AAA acknowledges that the decision to travel is a personal one,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesperson for AAA Florida. “The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] says staying home is the best way to stop the spread of COVID-19. For those who still decide to travel, we urge you to take every precaution possible to protect yourself and others.”
AAA officials expect Florida travel by bus, train, or cruise ships to be the mode of transportation to be the most dramatically impacted this year.
Florida travel among those modes during the Thanksgiving season is expected to drop an estimated 76.1%, falling from 52,409 Floridians in 2019 to 12,507 this year, the lowest level since 2001. That is the state record for the least amount of travel in those forms of transportation, which was about two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Air travel in Florida is also expected to take a serious hit during the Thanksgiving season. AAA officials expect flying to drop by about 44.4% from last year, falling from an estimated 218,215 Floridians who flew in 2019 to about 121,260 who will choose to fly in and out of state airports this year. That’s the lowest figure since 2009 in the throes of the Great Recession.
Automobile travel will be the preferred way to go this Thanksgiving season in Florida. AAA Florida projects 2.62 million Floridians will use their vehicles to travel during the holiday stretch. That’s down by .8% from 2019 when 2.64 million travelers used vehicles to travel in Florida. This year’s vehicle travel during the Thanksgiving holiday is about the same level as 2018.
Nationally, AAA officials expect travel to be off this Thanksgiving season, with a drop of 9.7% overall. An estimated 50.6 million Americans will engage in some form of travel during the holiday stretch. That’s down from the 56 million Americans who traveled during the Thanksgiving stretch in 2019. This year’s projected holiday travel figure would be the lowest since 2016.
