Will rising costs keep Americans home on Memorial Day weekend?
A gallon of gas costs 40% more than it did a year ago. Average air fares are up more than 20%. But soaring prices aren’t keeping millions of Americans from hitting the road or taking to the skies as this Memorial Day weekend kicks off the unofficial start of summer.
“Americans don’t let much get in the way of the best time of the year, even gas prices,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. De Haan told Straight Arrow that while some travelers may scale back, most Americans will trim other household spending before giving up their long-awaited summer vacations.
Still, if fuel prices keep rising, experts say some trips may be grounded.
Americans are still on the move
Forty-five million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this Memorial Day weekend, the highest on record, according to projections by the American Automobile Association. About 39 million will travel by car, 3.7 million by plane and 2.2 million by bus, train or cruise.
Americans also plan to keep traveling through the summer, according to a recent report by Bank of America Institute. The report found that 77% of Americans plan to travel this summer, up from 74% last year and 72% in 2024.
However, nearly a quarter of survey respondents said they plan to reduce the number of trips they take, while 10% said they plan to cancel a trip because of higher prices.
Overall, the researchers concluded, “the impact of higher energy prices on summer travel appears relatively limited so far.”
This resilience in the U.S. travel market, the report said, could be attributed to early bookings before the price hikes, growth in overall consumer spending and larger tax refunds from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Soaring travel costs
Logging miles is getting more expensive, and not just at the pump or the airport gate.
Travel prices in April rose at more than twice the rate of overall inflation, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
The trade group’s Travel Price Index, which tracks gas, airfare, hotels, restaurants and recreational activities for domestic travel using Labor Department data, rose 7.8% in April from a year earlier, the largest increase since the post-pandemic rebound in 2022.
Along with higher gas prices and airfare, the cost for a hotel stay is also up by 4.3% since last year, according to the Labor Department.
“American road trip culture is showing resilience,” GasBuddy said in a report released this week, but “Americans are going to pay billions more to get where they’re going this summer.”
Even if the Strait of Hormuz, closed because of the Iran war, reopens, Gasbuddy said it could take a year or more for prices to fully recover.
A growing divide between travel haves and have-nots
As U.S. wealth and income inequality widens, so too does the distance between the travelers and the homebound, studies found.
The Bank of America Institute found that nearly 40% of lower-income households do not plan to travel this summer, compared with far smaller shares of middle- and higher-income households. Bank of America card data also show that lower-income households spent less on airlines, lodging and other tourism-related categories in early 2026 than they did a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation. Middle- and higher-income households spent more.
The chasm between America’s travel haves and have-nots came into stark relief this week during a fiery Senate hearing over Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s reality-show-style road trip. The five-episode series, titled “The Great American Road Trip,” showcases Duffy and his family touring ten states and Washington, D.C., to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary and encourages Americans to do the same. The series is scheduled to air on YouTube in June.
Duffy faced blowback from Democratic lawmakers, former officials and social media influencers who called the show tone deaf.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it was “brutally out of touch,” describing it on X as “a Trump Cabinet member making a documentary about himself while regular families can’t afford road trips anymore, because Trump and his war put gas prices through the roof.”
Some lawmakers also raised ethics concerns over the corporate donors who helped fund the project, including companies regulated by the Transportation Department. Duffy defended the trip, saying no taxpayer money was used, the project was approved by career ethics and budget officials, and he and his family received no profits.
Travel industry experts said that despite rising costs, vacations can still be accessible to those who make it a priority.
“For many Americans, traveling over holiday periods like Memorial Day is a tradition,” AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz told Straight Arrow.
“Younger generations in particular prioritize experiences,” she said, “and despite higher fuel prices, they will find ways to go on road trips or take cruises to make memories with loved ones.”
Round out your reading
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
