Utahns reducing holiday travel

Fewer Utahns will travel to visit loved ones this weekend than in recent years, thanks to economic woes such as higher travel costs, job loss or insecurity, and loss in the value of investments that some people use as income, according to a survey for AAA.

About 310,000 Utahns will travel 50 or more miles from home over Thanksgiving, with 250,000 Utahns expected to travel by vehicle, a 2.9 percent decrease from last year. About 42,000 Utahns are expected to fly, a 5.5 percent decrease from last year, according to a Web survey by the Travel Industry Association of America for AAA. The decline marks the fourth consecutive holiday this year in which travel has decreased.

Talisha Riggs, a junior studying psychology at the University of Utah, would like to visit her father in Beaverton, Ore., over Thanksgiving. She says her car isn't in sufficient mechanical condition to make the drive to the Portland area, and she would have to fly. A plane ticket, she said, would cost $250, which is out of her means this year, because of the increased price of tuition, books and school supplies.

Riggs has decided against visiting her dad. "I thought I'd save money and stay here," she said.

The average Utah family is expected to spend more than $600 on Thanksgiving travel, said Rolayne Fairclough, spokeswoman for AAA Utah. "To travel, you need some discretionary income, and you can use that — your savings or whatever — and you can come back and rebuild

it. If you're worrying your job is going to end, that puts another factor in your thinking."

Air passengers can expect to pay 8 percent higher prices than last year, and car-rental rates have increased by 4 percent since 2007, according to the AAA Leisure Travel Index. About 70 percent of travelers plan to stay with a friend or relative.

At Salt Lake City International Airport, air travel is expected to be down from previous years. The airport measures passengers by "load factors" — the number of seats reserved on planes landing and departing in Salt Lake City. Planes this weekend on average will be 77 percent full, said airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann. As a result, the airport will not have any additional staff on hand this weekend. In recent years, load factors have been in the 90s.

People typically believe the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year, but Gann said that's not been her experience in her 20 years at the airport.