Amtrak: Book early for Thanksgiving travel
WASHINGTON -- Amtrak said seats on nearly half of its trains in the Northeast corridor have already been sold out for the Thanksgiving weekend and recommended travelers make reservations now to make sure they will have a seat. Reservations are required for the majority of Amtraks trains during November 23 to 29 Thanksgiving holiday period
Amtrak said it is putting an additional 60 trains in service between Washington, New York and Boston during the holiday, which is one of the rail lines busiest periods. Ridership is expected to be up 80% systemwide on Thanksgiving Day alone, Amtrak said. Amtrak projects it will carry 600,000 people during the holiday weekend.
ORLANDO -- The
Thanksgiving holiday may provide more evidence that the travel
industry has finally recovered from the effects of the 9/11
terrorist attacks.
AAA is projecting
that some 37 million Americans will travel over the busy
Thanksgiving weekend, a 3.1% increase over the same period last
year.
Air fares, hotel
rates and gas prices have all increased from last Thanksgiving, yet
more of us will head for Grandmas this holiday than did even in
2000 -- considered by many to be the high water mark for the travel
industry, said AAA Travel Vice President Sandra Hughes. Travelers
increased confidence in both the economy and airline security will
make this an extremely busy travel holiday.
According to AAA, at
least 30.6 million, or 82% of all holiday travelers, are expected
to hit the road by motor vehicle, compared to the 29.8 million who
drove last year. At least 4.6 million plan to travel by plane, an
increase of nearly 4% from 2003, while 2 million (up 5% from last
year) are expected to opt for trains, buses and other modes of
transportation.
In other news,
Amtrak said it expects some 600,000 passengers will be on its
trains during the Thanksgiving holiday. Of that, 125,000 are
expected to travel on Thanksgiving Day, the rail lines busiest day
of the year. Overall, ridership is expected to be 80% higher than
on a typical day.
The AAA survey and
Amtraks ridership projections are the latest examples in growing
evidence that consumer interest in travel and the travel industry
itself has finally recovered from the impact of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
Recently, the Travel
Industry Association (TIA) released a study showing 82% of travel companies are forecasting an increase in
business in 2005, as spending by domestic and international
visitors in the U.S. is projected to increase 6.9%, to about $593
billion, compared to $555 billion in 2003.
Overall, the TIA
said, strong consumer demand for travel products has helped travel
industry return to pre-9/11 business levels.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Michael
Milligan at [email protected].