Gearing Up for a Busy Tourism Weekend

Local skyways and roadways are expected to be packed this weekend as Southern Californians mark the traditional start of summer by getting out of town.

Los Angeles International Airport is bracing for an estimated 80,000 more arrivals and departures than usual over a Friday-through-Monday period, with total Memorial Day weekend traveler volume reaching 575,000, airport officials said.

The Automobile Club of Southern California is predicting a 5% increase in car travel in the Western U.S. over last year, despite a 31-cent rise in average gas prices since last Memorial Day weekend. Auto Club spokeswoman Marie Montgomery said Las Vegas tops the getaway list for local motorists, followed by the Grand Canyon, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs and San Diego.

Michael Collins of the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau said increased car travel over Memorial Day bodes well for tourism into Southern California over the summer. Well more than half of all visitors to the region come from within the state, he said, and most come by car.

Some local attractions are expecting to benefit from that traffic over the weekend. Disneyland and Universal Studios predict a jump in attendance over the three-day holiday. “Kids are out of school, families are together, and people are looking for things to do,” Universal Studios spokesman Eliot Sekuler said. The beach cities will hardly be deserted, either. The Doubletree Hotel in Santa Monica, for example, was all but booked solid today through Sunday, a front office supervisor said.