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BTS 26-03
Contact: Roger Lotz
Tel.: (202) 366-2246
Monday, November 17, 2003
More Travel Reported on Thanksgiving Day Than Previous Day, New BTS Report Says
Thanksgiving Day is more heavily traveled than the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for long-distance travel, according to a new report on National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) findings soon to be released by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
Nine out of 10 Thanksgiving holiday travelers (about 91 percent) use personal vehicles – such as a car. Depending upon the distance, these travelers have two very distinct travel patterns:
* For those traveling between 50 and 99 miles (44 percent of personal vehicle trips), more travel on Thursday than Wednesday, and more return on Saturday than Sunday.
* For those traveling at least 100 miles (56 percent of personal vehicle trips), trips are spread almost equally throughout the Wednesday-through- Sunday travel period.
More air, bus, and rail passengers travel on Wednesday than on Thursday.
NHTS also found that the Thanksgiving holiday period (Tuesday through Sunday) is among the most heavily traveled for long-distance trips – during this six-day holiday travel period, the number of long distance trips to and from a destination 50 miles or more rises by 54 percent, compared to the average for the remainder of the year.
The NHTS, a comprehensive survey of U.S. travel patterns conducted every several years, asked respondents about travel during Thanksgiving 2001. The holiday was only a few weeks after Sept. 11, 2001 and travel patterns may have been changed by the terrorist attacks.
Other facts about Thanksgiving holiday travel:
How We Travel (other than personal vehicle)
* 5 to 6 percent of holiday trips are by air.
* 2 to 3 percent are by other modes.
Why We Travel
* 53 percent of Thanksgiving long-distance trips are for visits.
* Visits make up only 24 percent of long-distance travel during the remainder of
the year.
How Far We Travel
* The average Thanksgiving long-distance trip is 214 miles compared with 261
miles over the remainder of the year.
How Long We Travel
* About half of holiday travelers make same-day trips without spending a
night away.
* Long-distance travelers who make overnight trips at Thanksgiving spend an
average of just under three nights away.
Who Travels
* The average age of Thanksgiving travelers is just under 34.
* During the remainder of the year, the average age is almost 38.
The NHTS, conducted in 2001 and 2002, gives a picture of travel in the United States at the start of the 21st century. Combining new long-distance travel information with short-distance data released earlier this year, it is the most comprehensive survey of travel in the United States since 1995 ? offering information on who travels, why they travel, where they travel and how they travel. For this report, only the long-distance trip data from the NHTS was analyzed.
The NHTS also collected information about a wide range of topics, including the amount and purpose of travel, the uses of different travel modes, time and miles spent traveling and the ownership and use of vehicles in the United States. It also examines the relationships between travel and specific household and demographic characteristics. Over the next several months, BTS and FHWA will be releasing additional NHTS data on these and other areas.
For this survey, a nationally representative sample of about 26,000 households was contacted and 60,000 individuals were interviewed. The NHTS is the successor to the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey and American Travel Survey.
BTS will be releasing the “America on the Go… U.S. Holiday Travel,” findings from the National Household Travel Survey on Nov. 21, 2003. It will be found at www.bts.gov.
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