US travelers are getting ready to embrace the busiest travel period of the year as the long Thanksgiving weekend starts. While thousands are looking forward to arriving at their final destination to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, roads and airports are starting to get crowded. Take a look at where and how Americans are traveling over the next few days.
According to the data, New York, Chicago and Orlando are the most visited destinations during Thanksgiving. ©©2012 Skift. All rights reserved.
Travel intelligence company Skift published on Wednesday an infographic gathering data from last year's Thanksgiving week. The graphic shows where and how Americans traveled during one of the country's most important holidays, giving an idea of what Americans are doing this year.
According to the site, the top destinations chosen by US travelers during Thanksgiving are the cities of New York, Chicago, Orlando, Denver and Los Angeles. The main means of transportation last year was the car, used by over 38.2 million, followed by the airplane used by 3.4 million. The other 900,000 travelers used other means such as trains, buses and boats.
Over the Thanksgiving period, the busiest days to travel by car are on Thursday and Saturday, with Tuesday and Sunday the least busy. The busiest days for those traveling by plane, boat, bus or train are Wednesday and Friday.
According to AAA, the motor club and leisure travel organization, this year the roads will see a slight increase with a predicted total of 43.6 million passengers, only 0.7 percent more compared to last year. This year US holidaymakers are expected to take shorter trips to save on the cost of fuel.
For air travel, Airlines for America, the airline trade association in the US, predicted a total of nearly 24 million passengers traveling between November 16 and November 26, 150,000 passengers more than the same period last year.