Labor Day sends Americans on a final summer trip, with some heading to Orlando

Many families nationwide will be squeezing in one last trip this weekend as Labor Day ends the summer travel season and signals the beginning of the school year for many states. But that doesn’t mean Orlando will necessarily see the massive crowds that show up for most holidays.

“Labor Day is the last chance to travel for the summer for many,” said Eric Jones, co-founder of travel site The Vacationer, in an email.

A Labor Day travel survey he conducted shows people in the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, like where he lives in New Jersey, are planning trips before school starts locally. Nationwide, around 53% of Americans plan to travel this upcoming long weekend, the research showed.

So far, Orlando is expecting fewer visitors for Labor Day weekend than for comparable three-day weekends of the year, according to Visit Orlando CEO and President Casandra Matej. But the lowest gas prices of the summer, combined with more travelers booking last-minute trips, mean more people could show up than anticipated, she and other analysts said.

The Orlando International Airport expects a nearly 20% increase in passengers, or 63,000 more people, around Labor Day this year from 2021, said spokesman Rod Johnson.

A total of 764,600 passengers are expected to pass through the airport during the six-day travel period. Friday is projected to be the busiest day, he said.

As of Aug. 30, advance hotel bookings for this year’s Labor Day weekend were 37% above last year and 10% below 2019, according to Visit Orlando. Both 2019 and 2021’s Labor Day weekends saw comparatively low hotel occupancy, due to Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the delta COVID-19 variant last year, Matej said.

The Vacationer’s survey found a comparable amount of people plan to travel for Labor Day as did for the Fourth of July, which is typically the biggest holiday for summer vacations.

About 55% of adults planned to travel for Independence Day, data showed.

The majority of people who plan to travel for Labor Day will drive. Around 26% of those surveyed will drive within 100 miles of home this Labor Day weekend, and over a third will travel within 250 miles.

Even though gas prices have fallen over the past two months, “travelers are still feeling the crunch of the gas surge,” Jones said. Fifty percent of people said high gas prices would affect their Labor Day plans, the same percentage as those polled ahead of the Fourth of July.

American Automobile Association spokesman Mark Jenkins said high gas prices generally do not deter people from traveling, but they can lead them to take shorter trips or spend less on other trip costs.

Still, a significant decline from this summer’s record high gas prices means some people who were undecided on traveling may take advantage of more favorable rates, he said. AAA no longer compiles travel projections specific to Labor Day.

Florida’s gas prices hit an all-time high of $4.89 per gallon in June and fell for 10 weeks before increasing by seven cents this week to an average of $3.61 per gallon statewide, according to the organization.

Falling gas prices and travelers’ intentions to take more trips and travel farther from home signal a strong end to the summer travel season nationwide and predict a busy fall and winter, said Amir Eylon, President and CEO of tourism market research firm Longwoods International.

According to the agency’s August survey, a quarter of Americans said they planned to travel within the next month and around 88% said they had a trip planned within the next six months.

Orlando is closing out the summer tourist season strong, Matej said. Hotel demand exceeded pre-pandemic levels in June and July and the Orange County Convention Center saw attendance above 97% of 2019’s numbers.

The city was named one of the top 10 destinations for travelers from North and Latin America earlier this summer, according to a recent Expedia travel insight report.

krice@orlandosentinel.com and @katievrice on Twitter