Elevated gasoline and jet fuel costs, driven by the Iran war’s disruption of global oil markets, are reshaping Memorial Day travel across the United States. Families who once drove hundreds of miles or flew to distant beach resorts are instead packing picnic baskets for state parks, biking on local trails, and rediscovering the coastline a tank of gas from home.
The American Automobile Association projected that more than 38 million Americans would travel over the holiday weekend, according to its annual forecast. But AAA noted that the share making trips of 500 miles or more has fallen from prior years, while day trips and short-haul excursions have climbed. “We’re seeing a regionalization of the summer getaway,” a spokesperson said.
Bank of America cardholder data, analyzed by economist David Tinsley, shows that while spending on gasoline and airfare is up sharply compared with a year ago — reflecting higher unit prices rather than greater volume — total leisure-travel spending has dipped. Consumers are cutting back on hotels, restaurants, and entertainment at far-flung locations even as they fill their tanks for shorter journeys. “The impulse to get away hasn’t died,” Tinsley wrote in a research note. “It’s just being satisfied closer to home.”
Stephanie Bernaba, 47, of coastal Rhode Island, is a case in point. “I’m not the best person with bugs and stuff,” she told the Associated Press, but she’s increasingly loading her three children into the car for beach afternoons and wooded hikes instead of the annual Florida vacation and Disney World trip the family once made. “I’ve been trying to do more of that because one, it’s quality time. Two, it’s fresh air. And three, we’re not spending an arm and a leg,” Bernaba said.
Personal finance blogger Jim Wang said he has fielded a stream of questions from readers asking whether to cancel long-planned trips or how to trim road-trip budgets. “People who would normally book a house at the shore for a week are now looking at three-day weekends within a two-hour radius,” he said.
Tourism researchers Marta Soligo of the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Nancy McGehee of Virginia Tech said the pattern echoes what occurred during previous fuel-price spikes: spending shifts from long-haul destinations to regional attractions. State parks, lakes, and national forests can be winners, Soligo noted, while destinations that rely on visitors arriving by plane or crossing an international border — such as Maine beach towns that draw heavily from Canada — face a more uncertain summer. McGehee added that the pullback in restaurant and lodging spending at distant destinations could ripple through local economies that count on summer tourism for a significant share of annual revenue.
The pressures are unlikely to ease quickly. Crude oil prices remain elevated more than a year into the Iran conflict, and analysts at major banks have warned that gasoline and jet fuel will remain expensive through the summer driving season. For families like the Bernabas, the trade-off is already clear: less distance, more dirt — and a tighter grip on the vacation budget.