WASHINGTON -- The
leaves may be falling but travel this autumn is expected to be up
3.1% over the same time last year, according to a Travel Industry
Association (TIA) forecast.
Leisure and business
travelers are expected to take some 278 million person-trips of 50
miles or more one way from home this fall, creating a ripe
environment for the travel market, said Suzanne Cook, TIAs senior
vice president of research.
TIA expects leisure
travelers, which has remained the most resilient of all travel
markets, to be out in force this fall. It estimates that 224.8
million leisure person trips will be taken during September,
October and November, up 2.6% from the same time last
year.
Business travelers,
meanwhile, are expected to take 43.2 million person trips. While
the number is 3.4% up, year-to-year, TIA said it is still far from
the high of 47.9 million-person trips business travelers took in
2000.
To contact the
reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Michael Milligan at
[email protected].