Most Americans plan cheap July 4 holiday: survey
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Faced with surging gasoline prices, most Americans are planning to keep travel and other spending at a minimum during the July 4 holiday weekend, according to a new poll.
Sixty-five percent of people questioned in a telephone survey conducted by Zogby International said they will not travel far over the holiday, while 10 percent said they plan to stay closer to home than they did at this time last year.
Twenty percent plan to travel as much as they did last year and five percent plan to travel more.
"It surprises me because people usually mark the middle of their summer across America with a fairly robust celebration of the nation's independence," Zogby spokesman Fritz Wenzel said in an interview.
"This year we've seen a real change in the American mind-set because of the dramatic increase in gas prices, the increases in grocery stores and the uncertainty across the broader economy."
Besides travel expenses, 34 percent of the more than 1,000 people questioned in the survey said they will cut back on other costs this weekend. Twenty percent will try to spend less than last year and 11 percent plan to increase their spending on expenses such as hotels, restaurants and theme parks.
"This is a real blow to the leisure travel economy in America," said Wenzel.
Even as gas prices surpass $4 per gallon, a separate Zogby Interactive survey conducted last month found that 75 percent of Americans are bracing for the $5-per-gallon fill-up this summer.
Of the almost 6,500 respondents in the online poll, 42 percent said they plan to significantly cut back their driving if gas reaches $4.50, while 19 percent said they intend to start putting the brakes on once it exceeds $5.
"They realize they have to have gas in most cases, they have to buy food even though it's more expensive, and so they've got to somehow figure out how to deal with this. And often it means cuts to other areas of their lifestyle," said Wenzel.
(Reporting by Claire Sibonney; Editing by Patricia Reaney)
