While Thanksgiving often conjures up images of home and family reunions, many Americans are using the holiday to travel to popular vacation spots. Data collected from more than 3 million Fly.com user searches identified that holiday-makers will eat their turkey dinner in places such as Hawaii, Mexico, Las Vegas and Orlando this year.
NEW YORK – Search engine Fly.com announced America’s most-searched travel destinations for Thanksgiving. The latest study reveals not only a strong preference for destinations typically associated with vacation getaways, but also higher domestic fares for several destinations compared to 2011.
While Thanksgiving often conjures up images of home and family reunions, many Americans are using the holiday to travel to popular vacation spots. Data collected from more than 3 million Fly.com user searches identified that holiday-makers will eat their turkey dinner in places such as Hawaii, Mexico, Las Vegas and Orlando this year.
Driven by extremely low fall airfares in recent months, Honolulu was the second-most searched destination behind New York City. Travelers from California have been able to find flights to Hawaii for as little as $297 roundtrip (including taxes), and fares from the East Coast have been as low as $347 roundtrip (including taxes).
“Savvy travelers know a good fare when they see one,” said Warren Chang, vice president and general manager, Fly.com. “So it is not surprising to see that some Americans are traveling to destinations that take them away from past holiday traditions. More importantly it is not too late to find a great deal on Thanksgiving travel. For example, we continue to see roundtrip fares to Honolulu for as low as $296.”
Other popular Thanksgiving destinations include Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Dallas – which ranked fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth place respectively, despite fares climbing as much as 15% compared with those available for Thanksgiving 2011.
Fly.com looked at best airfare prices for each destination during the Thanksgiving travel period in 2011 and compared these with prices during the same timeframe in 2012.
Fly.com used data collected from more than 3 million user searches and extracted domestic and international flights with departure dates Nov. 17-Nov. 22 and return dates Nov. 23-Dec. 1. The study period included all searches conducted between Aug. 16 and Sept. 27, 2012.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
