San Luis Obispo -- More Americans are traveling this Labor Day weekend than last year. AAA reports that 33 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles away from home. That is up nearly 3-percent from 2011. 3.8 million Californians will travel this weekend and a lot of them will end up here on the Central Coast. One of the favorite places is Avila Beach, made even more popular by a recent visit from Humpback Whales.
Campers are already claiming their spots here along Avila Beach Drive in Port San Luis.
AAA reports that nearly 3-million people will travel by car, that's up 3.6-percent from last year. The San Luis Obispo County Visitors Bureau says tourists booked hotel rooms 4 to 6 weeks in advance. That's a change over recent years when tourists made last minute travel decisions. VisitCalifornia.com says Tourists spend 1.1 billion dollars a year in SLO county and 1.5 billion in Santa Barbara County. The Central Coast is the third most popular spot in AAA's survey of Labor Day travel destinations for Californians this weekend. The visitors bureau says hotel occupancy for SLO county has been at 85-90-percent this summer and expects that trend to continue through September.
The central coast got national attention last week when thousands flocked to avila to see the humpback whales put on a show. Yvonne Mendivel the manager at Fat Cats Café says, "If nothing else from this last week with the whales which was amazing I mean more people have heard about Avila and seen what a wonderful little town it is and more people will come out that's what we're hoping." Avila businesses are expecting the typical holiday crowds and some say the attention the whales created will draw even bigger crowds this year.
