Aside from fueling up their grills, residents will also begin fueling up their cars Monday as it marks the kick off of travel season.

According to AAA Travel, about 34.8 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, defined as Thursday, May 23 through Monday, May 27. This number is a 0.9 percent decrease from the 35.1 million who traveled last year.

However, paired with air travel, AAA is projecting overall travel numbers to increase.

“Overall travel should be up this year compared to last year,” said Clay Ingram, AAA Alabama spokesperson, and added that this can be attributed to lower gas prices and stronger economic growth.

More travelers are also expected to take to the road rather than other forms of transportation, Ingram said. Also, median spending is expected to decrease more than six percent to $659 compared to $702 in 2012 with transportation costs consuming about 28 cents of every dollar.

AAA projects the average traveler will journey an average of 690 miles during the entire summer travel season, which is higher than last year’s average of 642 miles.

“Travel volumes are expected to remain above historical averages as millions of Americans kick off the summer travel season by creating special memories with a vacation getaway,” Ingram said.