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How gas prices will affect Memorial Day weekend spending

With gasoline prices teetering at nearly $4 a gallon, pain at the pump is crimping some Memorial Day travel plans.

With gasoline prices teetering at nearly $4 a gallon, pain at the pump is crimping some Memorial Day travel plans.

The auto club AAA is projecting that 34.9 million Americans will take trips at least 50 miles from home over the holiday weekend, an uptick of 0.2 percent - or 100,000 travelers - over last year's 34.8 million.

But soaring gas prices are a deterrent, causing travel to be relatively flat, despite a better economy.

"I am not going away this weekend, and it's due to the price of gas," said Yvonne Corbin, 38, a West Philadelphia mother of three who works as a medical-billing coordinator.

"It would have been our first outing of the summer to the Shore, but it's too much money to travel back and forth," she said. "It costs about $100 a week to fill my car."

People with plans will still take their trips but will not spend as much.

"We are definitely seeing shifts in how people spend their dollars," said travel researcher Shane Norton, with Boston-based IHS Global Insight. "They are trading down in food and cutting back on shopping and swapping out their activities."

AAA estimates that slightly fewer will drive - 30.9 million, a small decline from the 31 million who traveled by car a year ago.

And more Americans will fly - 2.93 million air travelers, compared with 2.63 million one year ago. Airfares are up 22 percent because of rising jet-fuel costs, said John Challenger, CEO of the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Job security is improving, and corporate downsizing and planned layoffs are at their lowest level since the late 1990s, Challenger said. But stagnant wages and high gasoline prices will keep vacationers closer to home.

Even though gas prices are more than $1 a gallon higher than they were last Memorial Day, nine out of 10 holiday travelers - or 88 percent - will drive, said AAA. The auto club estimates that more than 400,000 Philadelphia-area residents will venture 50 miles or more for the holiday, a number unchanged from last year.

"Despite record-setting gas prices this spring, 70 percent of travelers plan to economize in other areas, rather than give up their travel plans," said Jim Lardear, public- and government-affairs manager for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Some will reduce travel distances or use an alternate mode of transportation, leading to double-digit increases in air travel, he said. Others will stay at less-expensive hotels and dine at less-pricey restaurants.

Indeed, a stroll Tuesday through LOVE Park in Center City found a mixed bag of weekend plans.

Greg Schoener, 49, from Boothwyn, owns a house in Sea Isle and plans to be there. Gas prices will not keep him home, but he said people had cut back "to a certain extent."

Doris Schulz, 65, from Huntingdon Valley, said she and her husband "think twice about just getting in the car and going somewhere." Reinhard Schulz, 68, said: "We're staying home this weekend. It's partially the gas. We don't understand why the gasoline has increased to such a point. When you analyze it, it doesn't make much sense."

Mark Mulvihill, 46, from Norristown, will drive to attend his niece's college graduation in Newark, Del. Otherwise, he said, he would probably stay home "because of the gasoline. It costs $75 to fill up my car."

George Spellman, 55, from South Philadelphia, works for SEPTA and takes public transit whenever he can. "I'm planning to go to the Shore this weekend. I will jump on the train, bring my beach chair and my cooler.

"The less I use my car," he said, "the better off I am."

On Tuesday, gasoline prices averaged $3.94 in the five-county Philadelphia area and $3.76 in Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington Counties in South Jersey.

A year ago, the Memorial Day weekend gas price averaged $2.84 in the Philadelphia area and $2.60 in South Jersey.

34.9 million

People who will travel 50 miles or more from home for the holiday weekend. *

30.9 million

People who will travel by car, down 0.3% from last year.

2.93 million

People who will travel by air, up 11.5% from last year.

$3.94

Average price per gallon of gas in Phila. area, up $1.10 from last year.

22 percent

Increase in airfares compared with last year.

* Memorial Day holiday travel period defined as Thursday to Monday.

SOURCE: AAA, Challenger, Gray & Christmas