MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — Gas prices are going down, and holiday travel volume is going up, but experts say one doesn’t impact the other much. That’s according to Nick Jarmusz from Wisconsin AAA.
Jarmusz says now that the BP refinery south of Chicago in Whiting, Indiana is operational, we should see gasoline prices continue to go down a little more. “It’s sitting at about $2.70 for much of the state, and that’s actually skewed on the high side because prices are still elevated in the Milwaukee area, which was hit harder than the rest of the state by that refinery issue in the Chicago area, so we’re talking $2.70 or less for the current average today. A week ago, it was about $2.74.”
The peak travel season is about over, and the refineries are also preparing to switch over to making the winter blends of fuel, which are not as expensive to make.
Expect the highways to be busy, as we get into the last summer holiday weekend of the year. Jarmusz says they are predicting more families will be taking the car on a longer trip this weekend. “Triple A is predicting that over 35-million folks across the country are going to be traveling, mostly by auto, for the Labor Day holiday. Here in Wisconsin, we’re going to be seeing about 750-thousand people, which is almost a two percent increase over last Labor Day.” He says there are a number of factors that help them figure out travel projections, but the biggest one is consumer confidence. He says people with more confidence are more likely to spend dollars on a holiday getaway.
Jarmusz says families always want to travel, and the gas prices don’t usually impact travel volumes much. “If you look back at our ten-year numbers for both gas prices and for travel volume, the highest travel volume we saw in the last ten years was also the year that we had the highest gas prices.”
AAA Travel projects 35.5 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home during the Labor Day holiday weekend, which is the highest travel volume for the holiday since 2008. In Wisconsin, more than 760,000 people will be traveling for the holiday weekend.
