AAA predicts 91.9 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the 2011-12 holiday travel season, a 1.4 percent increase over the 90.7 million people who traveled one year ago. This year’s expected holiday travel volume is the second highest in the past decade and represents 30 percent of the total U.S. population.

Car travel remains the preferred choice of transportation for 2011-12, with approximately 83.6 million people (91 percent of holiday travelers) planning to take to the nation’s roadways, a 2.1 percent increase compared to 2010.

Roughly 5.4 million leisure travelers (six percent of holiday travelers) will fly during the holiday travel period, a 9.7 percent decrease from 2010-11.  According to AAA’s Leisure Travel Index, holiday airfare is expected to be 21 percent higher than last year.

Other modes of travel (bus, train, boat) will make up the remaining three percent of the total person-trips, with 2.9 million people expected to travel by these modes, 4.2 percent higher than 2010-11.

Hotel rates for AAA Three Diamond or mid-range lodgings are expected to increase a modest one percent from last year.

Source: AAA