Where Are Californians Heading This Thanksgiving?

More Californians are expected to travel this Thanksgiving compared to last year, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

More than 5.8 million Californians will be on the roads, in the air or on boats and trains to visit family and friend, according to AAA. That’s the highest number of travelers for Thanksgiving since 2007 and an increase of 3.1 percent over last year’s 5.7 million travelers.

"People are feeling very confident about the economy," AAA spokeswoman Cynthia Harris said. "They have more discretionary income to afford a trip."

More Californians are expected to drive to their destinations because of lower gasoline prices, AAA said. Although the current gas price averages are similar to Thanksgiving week last year, for most of this year, however, they were significantly lower than any year since the 2008-09 recession, according to the Auto Club. This gave consumers more money to spend for the holiday.

“As with the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays in 2016, we are seeing that travel has almost returned to the heights of popularity it achieved in the middle of the last decade,” Auto Club spokesman Jeffrey Spring said.

So where people heading this Thanksgiving? According to a survey of the Auto Club’s AAA Travel agents, the top five destinations for Southern California are:

• Las Vegas (also AAA’s No. 1 destination nationwide)
• San Diego (AAA’s No. 3 destination nationwide)
• Grand Canyon
• San Francisco (AAA’s No. 2 Thanksgiving destination)
• Santa Barbara

In addition to driving, 617,000 Californians are expected to fly and about 196,000 residents statewide will travel by other means, an increase of 1.6 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively, according to AAA.

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