Summer travel is heating up — and so are the prices. With vaccinations widely available, an estimated 47 million Americans will jump in a car or board an airplane to travel for this Fourth of July weekend, marking the second-highest Independence Day travel volume on record since 2000, according to the American Automobile Association.
It may also be one of the most expensive, as prices are rising for gas, hotels, and rental cars. Gas prices hit the highest amount in seven years—a national average of $3.12 a gallon, according to GasBuddy, which tracks real-time fuel prices. Rental cars, too, jumped 88% this year and hotel rooms cost about one-third more than last year, according to AAA. Major rental car companies sold off much of their fleets last year when Americans stayed home amid the pandemic, and they’re now facing a shortage of vehicles as demand surges. Car makers, too, are facing a global chip shortage which will further reduce inventory.
Still, this weekend, as many as 43 million of those travelers will be taking road trips by car—5% more than in 2019—to escape the heat at the beach, head for mountain retreats, theme parks and national parks. “We knew travel would be rebounding but I didn’t expect this,” said Julie Hall, a spokeswoman for AAA.
The boon in travel will likely extend into the rest of the summer. Two-thirds of Americans are planning summer vacations, up from the 17% of people who traveled over the spring, according to TripAdvisor’s 2021 Summer Travel Index. Three-quarters of them will travel domestically this summer. At least 53% of them plan to spend more, too, on those vacations.
The prices are frustrating but not necessarily a deterrent. Take Sean Conti, a Houston insurance executive, who will go on to Kauai this month — his first vacation since COVID-19. He discovered a week ago that his confirmed reservation price for an eight-day Chevy Malibu car rental would quadruple to $1,500. But he’s still going on the trip.
“It’s outrageous, but they know there’s nothing I can do about it,” Conti said. And he couldn’t find another car available elsewhere. “There are no cars available for any rental place,” he said.
Airline prices remain slightly lower—2%—than pre-pandemic rates, but those fares, too, may rise in the coming months, as more Americans become comfortable with travel again. Hopper, a travel app that predicts airline prices, projects airfare summer airfare to average about $283 for domestic airfare, up 35% from the summer of 2020 but down 4% from 2019. Prices may again climb 10% this fall, according to the app’s projections.
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