Iowans who are taking a trip for the Labor Day holiday will have plenty of company, whether they’re on the highway or the runway. Triple-A-Iowa spokeswoman Dawn Duffy says it’ll be a very busy weekend for travel, perhaps one of the busiest in three years. Duffy says the summer travel season is ending with a bang. The motor club estimates 34-point-one-million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday, a two-point-two percent increase from last year’s 33-point-four million travelers. While gasoline prices have been high for months, Duffy says it hasn’t kept most Iowans from vacationing.Duffy says the gas prices may have effected the distance people might drive, how long they’ll vacation or even the mode of transportation but it didn’t stop them from making get-aways. Gasoline prices in Iowa are now averaging a dollar-81 a gallon, up from a dollar-66 a year ago. The national average is a dollar-87.Duffy says 84-percent of the travelers this weekend will be traveling by motor vehicle, some 28-point-seven million people. That’s up two-percent from a year ago. About 11-percent, or nearly four-million people, will be traveling by plane. The rest will be traveling by bus, train or other mode. Oceans and beaches are the preferred destinations with 26-percent of travel volume. Small towns and rural areas took a close second with 21-percent, followed by cities at 16-percent. Outdoor attractions rate high with lakes, 12-percent; mountains, ten-percent; and state/national parks, four-percent. Theme parks and amusement parks will get three-percent.
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