Most Southern Californians prefer driving for Labor Day getaways

With gas prices gradually dropping, Southern Californians are more likely to drive for a Labor Day weekend getaway than any time in the last decade, according to the Auto Club of Southern California.

For a final summer fling, 91% of the 2.5 million Southern Californians who plan to travel for the holiday weekend will get behind the wheel of a car, a 4% increase over last year, the Auto Club said.

Travel experts say traveling by car is gaining popularity partly because it remains one of the cheapest ways to travel and because airline travel has become troublesome and time-consuming.

“The bottom line is that the car is the cheapest way to get anywhere,” said Auto Club spokeswoman Marie Montgomery. “Even when gasoline was $4.60 per gallon, it was still cheap.”

And driving is often convenient enough that travelers can make last-minute plans.

Jeremy Jacobus, an accounts receivable manager in Thousand Oaks, said he has yet to make specific vacation plans for this weekend but is considering a road trip with his family to San Louis Obispo to stay at the iconic Madonna Inn along U.S. 101.

“We can do a last-minute car trip, and the only thing we have to worry about is the dogs,” he said. “We usually get a neighbor to help out with that.”

Last year, 87% of Southern Californians who vacationed over the holiday weekend traveled by car. That travel preference has held steady at about 80% since 2000, according to the Auto Club.

Overall, the Auto Club forecasts 2.5 million Southern Californians traveling for the Labor Day weekend, an 11% increase over the same period last year.

Despite the healthy increase, the number of people planning to travel at least 50 miles from home with an overnight stay this year is still nearly 4% below the average number for Southern Californian vacationers from 2000 to 2009, the Auto Club said.

Still, the numbers point to an overall increase in travel spending nationally, a sign that the travel industry is rebounding from the recession and Americans are gaining confidence in the economy, according to the U.S. Travel Assn., which promotes travel in the United States.

The nonprofit group estimates summer leisure travel will increase by 2.3% over last summer.

Another reason for the boost in holiday travel, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in New Jersey, is that gas prices have remained fairly stable this year.

The national average for a gallon of unleaded peaked at $2.905 a gallon May 10 and has been trending down ever since, according to the Energy Department’s weekly telephone survey of filling stations around the U.S. In the last week, the U.S. average fell an additional 2.2 cents to $2.682, the Energy Department said Monday. That was the lowest average since February.

“Combine that with a lot of pent-up demand for holiday travel that motorists skipped in 2009 because of the deep recession and you have a recipe for a bigger Labor Day weekend this year,” Kloza said. The information service tracks daily average prices around the U.S. electronically through credit card receipts.

California prices took a different route, rising to their highest average of the year, $3.172 a gallon, Aug. 9, but also dropping in time for what is the last big weekend of the summer driving season. California’s average fell 4.8 cents in the last week to $3.092 a gallon.

Higher demand began during the Memorial Day weekend and remained strong throughout the summer, Kloza said.

“People by and large have returned to the roads this summer. In fact, this was the biggest lift in demand from spring to summer in at least a decade,” Kloza said.

Among Southern Californians, the most popular Labor Day destination is expected to be Las Vegas, followed by San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco, according to the Auto Club.

Las Vegas has also enjoyed a rebound from the recession in the last few months, as budget-conscious vacationers who had stayed away from Sin City began to loosen their grip on their wallets.

Visitor numbers to Las Vegas jumped 4% in June compared with the same month last year.

“We have seen steady increase of visitor volume,” said Vince Alberta, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “It shows people still need to get away and Las Vegas is at the top of the mind.”

hugo.martin@latimes.com

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