Holiday travel in West to increase slightly

Will Pearson of West Jordan is traveling to Idaho Falls to visit family over the three-day weekend.

Last Fourth of July weekend, he stayed at home to save money.

"We used to go to Idaho more often — four or five times a year," he said at a downtown Chevron gas station Wednesday. "Now, it's just a couple."

Pearson will be one of millions traveling over the holiday. Throughout the West, travel over the three-day holiday is expected to increase.

Perhaps because the Fourth of July holiday falls on the weekend or perhaps because gas prices aren't as high as they were last year, about 2.5 million people will travel this weekend in the eight states defined as the "Mountain West" — Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana — according to a AAA study. That's a 1.2 percent increase in travel from the July Fourth holiday in 2008.

AAA did not release the study to the media, but reported the results in a statement. The study didn't have any state specifics.

"It's going up only in the western part of the country," said Rolayne Fairclough, spokeswoman for AAA Utah. "The national average is going down."

Nationally, AAA expects 37.1 million people to travel, a 1.9 percent decrease from last year.

The economies in the West are stronger and unemployment rates are lower than the national average, which may contribute to the reason why more Westerners are traveling. For instance, the most current labor statistics find that Utah's unemployment rate is 5.4 percent. In Idaho, it's 7.8 percent. Nationally, it's 9.4 percent.

Also, in the West, metro populations are spread farther apart than in other parts of the country. For instance, it takes more time to travel to Denver from Salt Lake City than to travel from New York City to Washington, D.C.

AAA considers trekking more than 50 miles from home travel.

"When we look to the Mountain West states, we always have had higher travel numbers," Fairclough said.

Brighton Sloan of Salt Lake City will spend the weekend in Cedar City and the Shakespearean Festival. "My little sister is in the festival, so I'm going to see her perform," she said.

In Utah, the price of a gallon of regular unleaded on Wednesday was $2.67 a gallon. Last year at this time, a gallon cost $4.09.

The national average on Wednesday was $2.63. Last year it was $4.08.