Even though gasoline locally costs about half of what it did last year, fewer South Dakotans say they plan to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Surveys indicate that is also the national choice, breaking steady travel increases for the holiday since 2002. If all goes as planned, the stay-at-home trend makes Thanksgiving the fourth consecutive travel holiday this year that will see a decline in travelers.

"The overall state of the economy continues to present real challenges for many Americans looking to travel this Thanksgiving," Mark Madeja, spokesman for AAA South Dakota, said. "However, the desire to spend time with family, combined with significantly lower gasoline prices than earlier this year, is still a powerful draw, which is motivating millions to travel this holiday season."

About 41 million Americans plan to travel 50 miles or more from home, according to the AAA auto club. That's a decrease of 600,000 travelers from last year's total of 41.6 million.

Fewer South Dakotans - 94,867 - say they'll hit the road over the long weekend, and 10,209 indicated they will fly, a drop of 6 percent from Thanksgiving last year.

Fuel prices have plummeted over the past few months. The average for self-serve regular in Rapid City late Thursday averaged $1.76 per gallon, compared with $4.10 in late July, according to AAA's Fuel Gauge Report, available online at aaa.opisnet.com/index.aspx.

A year ago, South Dakotans were paying an average of $3.16 for a gallon of gas. Today, among the 50 states, Missouri's average price of $1.75 per gallon is the lowest in the nation. The national average for self-serve regular gasoline on Thursday was $2.04 per gallon, $1.05 less than the $3.09 average of a year ago, according to AAA.