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Thanksgiving travel expected to be down significantly as COVID-19 rages

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Travel during Thanksgiving week is expected to be down at least 10% this year as people are canceling holiday get-togethers at the last minute with COVID-19 raging across the region and state.

Jim Garrity, spokesman for AAA East Central in Pittsburgh, said the club expects this year to be the lightest travel period for Thanksgiving since the Great Recession in 2009.

An estimated 49 million Americans hit the highways for Thanksgiving last year, meaning that number could drop by at least 5 million people. Garrity said AAA thinks the number of travelers ultimately could be lower, as many people are waiting until Tuesday or Wednesday to make a decision on whether to travel or stay home for Thanksgiving.

“The news is so rapidly changing and evolving that we don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility to get even lower,” Garrity said.

Garrity is one of those people who canceled plans as COVID-19 cases surged across the region and state. His family originally was scheduled to visit relatives in DuBois, but they decided recently to have a smaller dinner at his suburban Pittsburgh home Thursday instead.

“We only changed our Thanksgiving plans a few days ago,” Garrity said.

“That’s just the nature of the pandemic, how rapidly the news changes.”

Carl Brandtonies, who owns Worldview Travel in Washington, noticed clients making changes to their plans Wednesday after Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration announced restrictions for out-of-state travel that include residents expected to be tested within 72 hours of returning home or quarantining for two weeks. While the order doesn’t appear to be enforceable, many people have taken Wolf’s restrictions to heart, he said.

“We had some people who were going (to travel), but due to the mandate that was issued (Wednesday), they’re a little bit timid,” Brandtonies said. “It caught everyone off guard with the mandate and the restrictions. People are doing a wait and see with the new mandate.”

His business is down 80 to 90% this year since news of the coronavirus pandemic began spreading in late January and early February. He’s noticed business travel is also lower, as employers don’t want to put their employees in jeopardy or risk the virus spreading through the work place.

“It’s a wide variety. I think everybody, a lot of businesses, are doing it out of caution,” Brandtonies said.

While international travel is also down, he does have some clients who are visiting Mexico, Aruba and Jamaica during the holiday. However, they must produce a negative COVID-19 test before entering the country or take a rapid test upon arrival, he said.

“People are asking what they have to do, ‘What do I need to do, how do I need to do it?’ We give them the information we have at the time because it can change overnight, as everyone has seen,” he said. “It’s different.”

That’s exactly what Garrity is stressing for people who are still considering traveling for Thanksgiving. He said AAA is fielding many questions from concerned travelers, including whether they’ll have to quarantine upon returning home or if there are restrictions in other states.

“If you have a travel agent, now is the time to pick up the phone and ask, ‘What are the rules?’ It changes so rapidly. If you consider traveling, this is something you’ll have to look at every day,” he said.

That also rings true for people traveling within Pennsylvania, he said. Garrity is advising people to search for information about their destination – including local and county websites – to see if there are restrictions in place.

“There’s no one-size fits all answer,” Garrity said. “At the end of the day, traveling is a personal decision. No one is going to make the decision for you if you’re going to travel. You need that information in your back pocket.”

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