Las Vegas is the top choice of travelers this Labor Day holiday.
The gambling mecca is the No. 1 destination of Southern Californians, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.
There will be fewer people on the Strip, if “Sin City” follows the national trend. About 2.7 million Southern Californians will take trips of over 50 miles over the three day weekend that begins next Friday. That’s down about 1.4 percent from 2007.
The number of Labor Day travelers in Southern California is expected to decline slightly, by about 1.4%, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Harder hit will be airlines, which will see 374,000 locals taking plane trips, off 3.4% decrease from last year. That translates to fewer hands on the handles of those slot machines at Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport.
The Auto Club said the cutback in travel was due to high gasoline prices and a weak economy.
Nationwide, travel will be down .9 percent, with 34.38 million travelers over the unofficial holiday period which stretches from the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 29 to the evening of Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 1.
One bright spot: Gas prices on Labor Day are slightly below Memorial Day. But both holiday weekends saw prices right around $4 per gallon, while the weeks in between saw prices rise well above the mark. But with Hurricane Gustav threatening the Gulf Coast this week, prices are expected to rise as futures markets bet on the threat of damage to oil platforms.
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