Travel + Tourism
As Americans make plans for the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, Las Vegas, Nevada, comes out as this year’s favoured travel destination. But what about the National Parks?
Winter was brutal, gas prices are low, and hotel rates are affordable. As a result, Americans are packing their cars or buying airilne tickets in record numbers.
Based on advanced room reservations, this year’s favoured Memorial Day travel destinations are Las Vegas, Nevada; San Diego, California; Orlando, Florida; and New York, New York, on line travel website the Priceline.com says.
Interestingly, 4 of the top 10 travel destinations are in California: San Diego, Orange Country, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Two of the top 10 travel destinations – Orlando and Miami – are in Florida. The others are scattered around the country: Las Vegas, Nevada; New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois; and Washington, DC.
Geography has something to do with this. With just 3 days at their disposal, many travellers will opt for travel destinations close to home. Thus places such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles will always tend to rank highly in a survey like this.
“Memorial Day weekend is typically the first big chance hotels have of luring consumers out of their homes after a long winter,” says priceline.com Travel Editor Brian Ek.
“Fueled by low gas prices and an increased trust in access to last-minute deals, we’ve seen a dramatic upwards trend in priceline.com consumers making reservations on the road app-in-hand.”
Where to Spend Memorial Day Weekend
A list of this year’s Top 10 most popular Memorial Day travel destinations with the Average Daily Hotel Rate made by Priceline.com customers by 11 May 2015 follows …
1. Las Vegas, Nevada (US$131)
2. San Diego, California (US$154)
3. Orlando, Florida – Disney World (US$111)
4. New York, New York (US$220)
5. Chicago, Illinois (US$166)
6. Orange County, California – Disneyland (US$118)
7. Washington, DC (US$154)
8. Miami, Florida (US$181)
9. San Francisco, California (US$178)
10. Los Angeles, California (US$140).
Needless to say, national memorials and parks will always get short shrift in a survey like this. Mount Rushmore doesn’t offer lodging, and most people travelling to Yellowstone or Yosemite will go camping rather than stay in hotels.