If you’re confused by the silly headline-grabbing surveys about summer travel, take a number. So are the rest of us.
The Gallup organization has declared that more than a third of Americans are rethinking vacation plans because of record-high gas prices, and some destinations are feeling the squeeze as the summer travel season officially begins this holiday weekend.
Weren’t they saying that last year? And the year before?
AAA, meanwhile, projects the number of Americans traveling during the Memorial Day holiday will drop slightly compared to the previous year. AAA estimates that 37.87 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday, a decrease of nearly 360,000 travelers (0.9 percent) from last year’s total of 38.23 million.
In other words, travel remains practically flat from last year.
How about air travel? The Air Transport Association, the lobbying arm of the airline industry, predicts that slightly fewer passengers will travel June 1 through August 31, compared to the same period last year. Approximately 211.5 million passengers are expected to fly this summer, down roughly 1 percent from the 214.2 million passengers who traveled during the summer months of 2007.
One percent is statistically insignificant, just like the AAA numbers.
And besides, does anyone believe anything the airline industry tells us anymore?
Bottom line: no one — not Gallup, not AAA, not the Air Transport Association — really knows what this summer is going to be like. We’re probably better off ignoring the polls and just taking our hard-earned vacations.
