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Long-Distance Travel Increases by One-Fourth During Christmas/New Year's, BTS Report Says

Contact BTS 28-03 Dave Smallen 202-366-5568

Monday, December 22, 2003 - During the Christmas/New Year's travel period, long-distance travel grows as much as 23 percent compared to the rest of the year, according to a new National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) report from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

During the 2001 Christmas-New Year's season, travelers made 16.5 million daily one-way long-distance trips, compared to 13.3 million daily during the rest of the year.

About nine out of 10 Christmas/New Year's holiday travelers will use personal vehicles - such as a car - to make their trips.

Other facts about the Christmas/New Year's holiday travel period:

Travel Patterns

Most holiday travel is domestic. During the Christmas/New Year's period, only 3 percent of long-distance travel is international.

Why We Travel

Forty-three percent of Christmas/New Year's long-distance trips are for visits to family, while visits make up only 24 percent of long-distance travel during 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 Christmas/New Year's spend an average of just under four nights away.

Who Travels

The average age of Christmas/New Year's travelers is just above 36. During the remainder of the year, the average age is almost 38.

Christmas and New Year's travel patterns depend on the day of the week on which the two holidays fall. In 2001, when the NHTS holiday travel information was collected, Christmas and New Year's Day were on Tuesday while this year they are on Thursday. This is unlike Thanksgiving, which always falls on the fourth Thursday of November.

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. Christmas/New Year's travel data is based on trips made between Dec. 21, 2001 and Jan. 6, 2002. Data for the remainder of the year is based on April 1, 2001 - March 31, 2002 travel, excluding the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's holiday periods.

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 will release 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 released the "America on the Go. U.S. Holiday Travel," findings from the National Household Travel Survey in November. It can be found at www.bts.gov.