Holiday Travel: Will NJ Get On The Road Or Cancel Plans?

NEW JERSEY — To travel, or not to travel – that's the question most New Jerseyans are asking themselves this Holiday season.

A few weeks ago, New Jersey residents were ready to put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror. But the post-Thanksgiving surge coupled with the new Omicron threat has put travel plans in limbo for many.

Ahead of Thanksgiving, News12 New Jersey conducted a poll asking residents if they plan to travel this winter. Around 47 percent said they were staying home.

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Meanwhile, a holiday travel survey released by The Vacationer said more than 122 million Americans will travel to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. The Christmas Travel Survey is the third part of The Vacationer's holiday series.

The Vacationer collected data using SurveyMonkey. This data was then analyzed by Eric Jones, an assistant professor of mathematics at Rowan College of South Jersey. Jones broke down the data by region to give us an idea about travel this holiday season.

In the mid-Atlantic region – New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, 45 percent of respondents said they were more comfortable traveling this year, as compared to 2020. However, they will travel within the region, as responders said they chose to celebrate with family and friends.

“Around 41.94 percent responders said they will be traveling within 1 to 99 miles,” Jones said. “Only 3.8 percent responders said they were comfortable traveling 1000 mile or more.” Respondents from the region were not comfortable getting on a flight and only 15 percent of respondents said they are willing to travel between 100 to 199 miles. The favored mode of transportation is the car.

Another interesting aspect that the data showed was 45.16 percent of respondents chose to celebrate with vaccinated family and friends only.

“In our region, people are getting vaccinated. They are maintaining social distancing and are used to mask mandates. So, they feel fairly comfortable traveling and visiting within the region,” said Jones, who is also co-founder of The Vacationer.

New Jersey residents are also not willing to spend too much on travel. While nationally 3.02 percent said they are willing to spend between $1500- $2000, this figure dropped to 1.94 percent in the region, Jones said.

People instead chose to participate in other holiday activities like meals with friends and family, decorating the home, and baking cookies, Jones said.

But this poll was administered on Oct. 17 – much before the World Health Organization identified the new coronavirus variant. Since then, much has changed.

Jones believes the threat of the Omicron variant will have a slight effect on the nationwide survey, but "the figures will hold” regionally.

“In New Jersey families are more condensed. So even with the Omicron variant, the figures will hold, with a slight drop, because people are only traveling short distances to be with family,” he said.

Since the Omicron variant was first reported, Federal officials have rolled out a renewed travel ban to eight southern African countries — Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, officials in New Jersey continue to make preparations for the potential spread of the omicron variant – including monitoring federal travel bans.

"As our region is a hub for international travel and commerce, we must be ready now," Gov. Phil Murphy said during a Monday news conference. "The department of health is prepared to quickly identify omicron through both PCR testing and virus sequencing and protocols."

So what are your travel plans this holiday season? Let us know in the comments below.

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