• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 27, 2010

Looks like Labor Day travel will get a real bounce this year, buoyed by more stable gas prices, some great airfares, and a few special circumstances—including some media-savvy Great White sharks off Cape Cod.

AAA projects that the number of Americans traveling this Labor Day weekend—Sept. 2 through Sept. 6-- will increase 9.9% from 2009, with approximately 34.4 million travelers taking a trip at least 50 miles away from home. "We are still not at 2008 levels, but it's really good to see an increase over last year," Heather Hunter, a spokesperson for AAA, tells Marketing Daily. Last year, 31.3 million Americans hit the road. And if the holiday had fallen a little earlier in the month, even more people would be traveling.