Location data company Arrivalist projects that Labor Day holiday road trip volume will be down just 5.3% compared to last year. An estimated 42.5 million Americans will hit the road over the extended weekend. The data comes from the company's launch of an improved Daily Travel Index that now includes year-over-year insights.

"Americans continue to seek respite on the road," says Arrivalist Founder and CEO Cree Lawson. "These latest projections are a promising sign for the travel industry."

The Daily Travel Index is a daily measure of road trip activity (trips by car over 50 miles) taken by residents of all 50 U.S. states. The addition of year-over-year data going back to January 2019 will provide the travel industry even more insights to help plot its path to recovery.

Beginning September 1, the Daily Travel Index will measure activity year-over-year rather than comparing it to a baseline of February 2020, the period before the Covid-19 pandemic. Site visitors accessing the free online resource will now be able to see trends in travel year-over-year by origin market and by mileage bands. Additionally, a customized Daily Travel Index is available to clients, which allows them to compare activity in their market to a nationwide index.

Arrivalist's methodology is based on a representative balanced panel of GPS signals representing road trips taken specifically in cars (excluding travel by air). A trip is measured as one where the user has traveled a minimum of 50 miles and spent a minimum of two hours at the destination. Commuter travel or other frequently repeated trips—i.e., cargo deliveries or other reoccurring activities—are excluded from the Daily Travel Index.