Record Surge in Road Trips Expected for Fourth of July, Says Arrivalist

Record Surge in Road Trips Expected for Fourth of July, Says Arrivalist.

42.6 Million Americans to Hit the Road.

NEW YORK, June 30, 2022 – Leading location data company Arrivalist predicts 42.6 million Americans will travel by automobile over the Fourth of July holiday. Road trips will not only increase 1.5 percent from last year, but they will also be higher than pre-pandemic levels. Arrivalist predicts an increase of 2.7 percent from 2019 numbers.

“We’re expecting a record number of road trips this Fourth of July,” said Cree Lawson, Arrivalist Founder and CEO. “Travel demand, especially around the holidays, is continuing to outpace previous levels. As we have seen throughout the year, inflation is not deterring road trip activity and higher airfares are driving Americans to travel by car.”

When calculating holiday travel predictions, Arrivalist considers the following factors:

• Trending information from the Daily Travel Index
• TSA numbers
• Gas prices
• COVID-19 case counts (COVID-19 case counts had a lower weighting this year; gas prices had a higher weighting)

Arrivalist’s Daily Travel Index tracks U.S. travel patterns, providing consumers with timely updates within 48 hours of a specific date. Launched in April 2020, the platform was built as a free tool to help the travel industry track the pulse of the pandemic’s recovery. Earlier this year, Arrivalist updated the Daily Travel Index with three new improvements, including the addition of overnight stay data on the website, up to four years of trending travel data (2019-2022) available for free, and the ability to compare trending travel data across all 50 states.

How the Data is Calculated

Arrivalist’s methodology is based on a representative balanced panel of GPS signals representing road trips taken specifically in cars (excluding travel by air). A trip is measured as one where the user has traveled a minimum of 50 miles and spent a minimum of two hours at the destination. Commuter travel or other frequently repeated trips—i.e., cargo deliveries or other reoccurring activities—are excluded from the Daily Travel Index.