More Locals Expected to Travel This Holiday Season

Heading out of town for the holidays? The number of Southern Californians traveling this season is expected to increase just slightly from last year, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The Auto Club projects that 7.13 million local residents will take holiday trips, which is a slight increase of 1.4 percent over last year’s seven million travelers.

Of the travelers who will take trips of 50 miles or more between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, 6.3 million, or nearly 90 percent, will travel by car—a 2.5 percent increase over last year. More than 575,000 Southern Californians are projected to go by plane, and another 231,000 will use another form of transportation, the Auto Club reported Thursday.

Statewide, 11.4 million total travelers are expected, with 10.2 million expected to go by car, 925,000 by plane, and 371,000 by other means. Across the country, 91.9 million Americans are expected to take end-of-year getaways, which is an increase of 1.4 percent over last year.

“The Christmas/New Year time period is the biggest holiday for travel,” said Filomena Andre, the Auto Club’s vice president for travel products and services. “In a positive sign for the economy, the number of travelers for this holiday period is expected to increase despite higher costs for gas and airfare.”

Here's a list of the most popular destinations for Southern Californians over this Christmas-New Year holiday, according to a poll of Auto Club AAA Travel agents:

1. Las Vegas
2. San Diego
3. San Francisco
4. Grand Canyon
5. Anaheim (Disneyland)