AAA projects record travel for Fourth of July

INDIANAPOLIS – Hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers will hit the road for the Fourth of July.

AAA estimates 1.9 million Hoosiers will travel at least 50 miles over the Independence Day holiday period between June 28 and July 6.

The travel forecast includes two weekends; AAA said that more accurately reflects the flow of holiday travelers and travel trends.

Most of those Indiana travelers—1.78 million of them—will drive to their destination.

“The majority of people are taking road trips,” said Christina Griffiths, a spokesperson for AAA Hoosier Motor Club. “That’s not really surprising. We see that on a lot of these holidays for people in the Midwest in general.”

AAA projects 69,156 Hoosiers will reach their destination by air this year, while another 116,905 will travel by other means (buses, trains, cruises, etc.).

In all, it represents a 2.7% increase in Hoosier travelers. Griffiths attributed the increase, in part, to summer gas prices, which are the lowest they’ve been since 2021.

“The price of crude oil has kept gas prices on the lower side, and while we are seeing them go up slightly as the summer continues, drivers are paying about 40 cents less a gallon than they were this time last year,” Griffiths said.

July 4 also falls at the height of vacation season, which is another reason for the increase, Griffiths said.

Nationally, AAA expects a record 72.2 million people to travel at least 50 miles for the Independence Day holiday period. That’s 1.7 million more travelers than 2024.

“This is an increase over last year as well as previous years even going back to 2019 before COVID,” Griffith said. “This is kind of the first year that we’ve been going back to those pre-COVID travel numbers and surpassing them.”