The Travel Industry Association predicts a record breaking summer travel season. Despite rising prices, Americans will be traveling in record numbers with Florida as their their preferred destination.

• Florida - 34%
• California - 22%
• Nevada - 15%
• New York - 14%
• Hawaii - 13%
• Texas - 12%
• Colorado - 11%
• Arizona - 9%
• Tennessee - 8%
• South Carolina - 6%

Summer 2005 Highlights

Many trips will include children, with 37% of travelers taking kids on their longest trip. 6% will include a grandchild.

Traveling with one’s spouse is also popular (55%), as is traveling with other family members (19%) and traveling with friends (13%). 7% will travel with their parents and 8% will travel solo.

The top three planned activities are visiting friends and relatives (75%), going to a beach or lake (70%) and visiting small towns or rural areas (64%).

Rounding out the top ten summer traveler activities are: visiting cities/urban areas (54%), visiting national or state parks (47%), visiting historic sites (41%), camping, hiking or climbing (38%), fishing (36%), attending a family reunion (35%), or attending arts events (34%).

What else will summer travelers be doing? Most will be visiting museums (33%), theme parks (31%), gambling casinos (26%) or attending cultural events such as ethnic festivals (24%).

17% of summer travelers plan to use an RV, while 16% intend to enjoy an all-inclusive resort. 16% plan to travel outside the U.S. and 10% say they plan to take a cruise.

According to Dr. Suzanne Cook, senior vice president of research for the Travel Industry Association of America, every sector of the travel industry will be up, . Americans will take 328 million leisure person-trips during June, July and August 2005.

While travel prices are up in the first three months of 2005, this will not discourage Americans from taking trips, but they will be looking for deals and ways to economize their summer vacations.

Source: Travel Industry Association of America