The Memorial Day Weekend is expected to be busier than usual when it comes to the number of people traveling around the region.
The Southern California Automobile Club predicted travel would be up more than 3 percent over last year. San Diego is the number two destination for regional travelers, behind Las Vegas and ahead of the Grand Canyon. A healthy economy gets a lot of the credit for a busy travel holiday.
"One significant trend we're seeing this year is that solid growth in the number of air travelers, which to us signifies longer vacations that happen a longer distance away from home. So I think that points again back to people having confidence in the economy and their willingness to spend more on travel," said Jeffrey Spring of the Auto Club.
Last year's busy Memorial Day travel weekend carried over into the rest of the summer. Spring said he expects the same this year.
Summer travel is also expected to be robust, just like last summer when the National Park System celebrated its centennial.
"We've heard among our travel agents that some people sort of put off a trip to the national parks last year because it would be busy, so they may be traveling there this year instead. But we think this portends a very busy travel season. When we see Memorial Day numbers like this, it'll flow into the summer time as well," Spring said.
The Auto Club said there is more confidence in the economy and that is why more people are traveling.
