Seventy-nine percent of Americans plan to take road trips this summer, an increase of 10 percent from last summer, according to the American Automobile Association.
Lower gas prices account for the increase, on average the lowest since 2005. Another reason is more people are discovering road trips can be less expensive, highly do-able and less logistically hectic than exotic vacations in faraway places.
We Minnesotans are fortunate. Our state was ranked number eight among all 50 states as a road-trip friendly state. The study was done by WalletHub, an organization that does interesting state rankings in a wide area of subjects based on data analyzed by experts in tourism, hospitality, marketing, natural resources and management. All told, 22 metrics were used in the study. The main rankings were in three categories: costs, safety and activities.
Minnesota ranks first in road-trip safety, which was based on population density, driving laws, quality of roads and bridges, vehicle thefts, violent crimes and fatalities per 100-million miles traveled. Minnesota also ranked well in activities (things to do during road trips). We scored a 20 in that category. As for costs during a road trip, Minnesota ranked 39.
We in Minnesota and countless out-of-staters know full well what a beautiful driving state this is from the spectacular North Shore to the Pipestone area, from the Boundary Waters to the St. Croix-Mississippi river-bluffs region. There are wonderful, scenic state, county and city parks easily accessible throughout the state. And, of course, there are the lakes – about 14,000 of them.
In the WalletHub study, Minnesota’s total points are 55.15. The highest-ranked state is Oregon with 59.68 points, the lowest Connecticut with 33.04 points. The top-ranking states, in order, are Oregon, Utah, Washington, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and Nevada, followed by Minnesota, then California.
The last three states on the list are Mississippi, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
In our five-state area, Iowa rated 29 points, South Dakota 31, Wisconsin 36 and North Dakota 46.
Americans spend an astonishing average of $683 billion on leisure travel every year. It’s a good thing road trips are increasing in popularity because the lion’s share of that money will be spent in our nation, in local areas. Collectively that massive amount of travel money is a huge boost to the federal, state and local economies.
For many years the tourism industry slogan was “See America First.” Many people are apparently choosing to do just that. We’d like to add to that: “See Minnesota First.”
So take a weekend road trip right her in our own “backyard.”
