Family Travel Dominates the Holiday Season

Most holiday trips are made to visit friends and relatives: 73 percent at Christmas, 65 percent at Thanksgiving, and 59 percent at New Year's, compared with 33 percent for the year as a whole (Figure 1). New Year's is more likely to be used for leisure travel, such as skiing or sightseeing, than either Thanksgiving or Christmas, but all three holidays have a lower proportion of leisure travel than the year as a whole. The share of business travel drops dramatically during the holidays from 23 percent for the year to 5 percent for Christmas and 7 percent for both Thanksgiving and New Year's (Table 1).

Holiday travel often involves families traveling together, which raises the size of the traveling party and lowers the median age of all travelers. At Thanksgiving, 41 percent of trips included at least one adult and one child, compared with only 30 percent, on average, for the whole year. The comparable figures for Christmas and New Year's are 40 to 44 percent, respectively. The median age of travelers drops from 38 for the year to 37 for Thanksgiving and New Year's travelers, and 36 for Christmas travelers. The average travel party size on Thanksgiving is 2.5 persons and 2.6 persons on Christmas and New Year's compared with 2.2 for the whole year.

Among Thanksgiving travelers, 68 percent consider their trip a vacation, compared with 70 percent of Christmas travelers, and 75 percent of new Year's travelers.

About 5.8 million Americans make only one long-distance trip during the year, either at Christmas or Thanksgiving. Another 6.6 million travel home for both holidays, but make no other trips during the year. Just over 2 million people travel only at New Year's.