AAA expecting record travelers for the 4th of July

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — June is coming to a close, which means July 4 celebrations are nearly here.

With just nine days away from the holiday, millions of people are planning trips to see their favorite fireworks displays.

After seeing travel numbers pick up year over year since the pandemic, this fourth of July weekend is set to be the biggest yet.

“This is exceeding pre-pandemic levels, which is very exciting, because we’ve seen things tick up. but we are now over 2019 levels, we’re up over last year as well. So, across the board our travel advisors are talking about a lot of increased demand for summer travel this year.” Jillian Young, a spokesperson for AAA Northeast told ABC 6.

Young said around 71 million people are set to travel in the week leading up to the fourth of July, a jump of around 3 million additional travelers over 2023.

“The toughest days to travel next week are going to be July 3rd when a lot of people are heading out for their trips and July 7th at the end of the week when a lot of people head back.” said Young.

“When you look at the 4th of July and the few days preceding it, so the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, traffic is looking like it’s going to be tough between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. So, if you can, just head out early in the day.” Young continued.

Even with the holiday more than a week away, festivities are set to kick off Wednesday.

Central Falls will hold its fireworks celebration on Wednesday.

And Coventry is set for Saturday before we even get into July.

Then we’ve got a slew of events coming up next week, with Providence’s show at India Point Park on Tuesday and Bristol’s massive event kicking off on Wednesday

There’ll be fireworks nearly every day through Sunday, all across the Ocean state.