New analysis reveals where Americans went between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and how far they traveled
NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / January 22, 2026 / Mobile advertising and audience platform Start.io today released new findings on U.S. holiday travel behavior between Thanksgiving and New Year’s 2025. The analysis shows that U.S. holiday travel was overwhelmingly domestic, and that domestic trips frequently spanned hundreds of miles rather than short-distance getaways.
“Start.io is built to transform privacy-conscious mobile signals into actionable insights, and holiday travel is a perfect example of where that lens is valuable,” said Ravit Ross, Chief Revenue Officer at Start.io. “Our analysis uses anonymized, aggregated location data observed between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, with standardized distance thresholds, to map how travel behavior shifts during one of the most concentrated mobility periods of the year.”
Start.io’s analysis found that approximately 26.43% of Americans traveled domestically during the holiday period, with only about 0.82% traveled internationally. Among domestic travelers, 43.26% traveled between 500 and 1,000 miles, while 37.55% traveled 200 to 500 miles. Only 19.19% traveled 100 to 200 miles, indicating that holiday travel often meant cross-region movement rather than nearby drives.
The data also revealed that holiday travel demand concentrated in major metro hubs. Chicago emerged as the top destination city, attracting 737,142 inbound travelers during the period analyzed, far ahead of Dallas (448,207) and Houston (295,166). Other leading destination hubs included Fort Worth (182,132) and Minneapolis (175,578).
In addition to being home to multiple popular holiday travel destination cities, Texas stood out as a major driver of travel volume overall. Texans accounted for 1,346,379 domestic travelers, making it the single largest “engine state” contributing to holiday travel activity.
Although international travel represented a relatively small share of holiday travel overall, Start.io’s analysis showed clear destination patterns. Mexico and Canada led international holiday travel, reflecting the practicality of shorter-distance trips and easier travel planning compared to long-haul journeys.
Beyond those top two destinations, the next tier of international travel pointed strongly toward Asia-Pacific. Japan and India ranked among the leading long-haul destinations, alongside other prominent APAC countries appearing in the broader top 10 list.
The full report, including additional findings and analysis, is available here.
Methodology
This analysis is based on anonymized, aggregated mobile location signals observed by Start.io between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. For this report, Start.io defined domestic travel as trips of 100+ miles and international travel as trips of 1,000+ miles. Results reflect the company’s observed dataset and are intended to identify directional patterns in holiday travel behavior.
About Start.io
Start.io is a mobile-driven advertising platform built on real-time audiences. Powered by multiple AI engines, Start.io’s platform enables more efficient, effective, precise programmatic advertising campaigns at scale, serving hundreds of millions of ads each day across thousands of leading global apps and websites. Through direct integrations with thousands of mobile publishers, Start.io access over 100 billion anonymized first-party data signals daily worldwide. Marketers leverage these signals to understand and anticipate consumer behavior, uncover new opportunities, and drive sustainable business growth.
For additional insights or to explore Start.io’s audience intelligence solutions, visit http://www.start.io.
Contact Information
Jolie Horne
Marketing Manager, Start.io
[email protected]
SOURCE: Start.io
