Daytona Beach, FL - Now that some COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, gas prices are starting to rise just in time for the first official holiday of summer.
AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins said with people returning to the roads and maybe traveling for Memorial Day weekend, gas prices are on the rise. He said that when stay-at-home orders went into place, gas prices plummeted because people were staying home. "Now people are returning to the road so gas prices are rising. Just in the past week, we've seen gas prices rise about ten cents across the state but still, they are about 80 cents less than this time last year."
Even though gas is about eighty cents less than it was last year at this time, Jenkins doesn't believe people will travel very far. "What we would expect is some regionalized travel. Air travel is not back to what it used to be. Cruise lines are not operational yet so we're actually anticipating the lowest travel Memorial Day in history."
Many people are hesitant to travel far from home but Jenkins says he believes that will change soon. "I think that a lot of Floridians right now, they're coming out of quarantine, they're coming out of lockdown. As time progresses, I believe that consumers will gain more and more confidence to travel even further out than normal."
Jenkins said that for the first time in 20 years, AAA will not be issuing a Memorial Day travel forecast as the accuracy of the economic data is undermined by COVID-19. Last year, forty-three million Americans traveled for Memorial Day weekend.
