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More than 3 million residents of the Mountain West region are expected to board planes, trains and automobiles during the Fourth of July weekend, the AAA reports.

That is a 1.5 percent hike over travel volumes during the same holiday period in 2013 for the region that includes Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona, according to AAA spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclough.

AAA no longer breaks out its travel projections for states individually, but Fairclough said Utah travelers share the region's "consumer confidence and steady economic improvement" — prime factors in the expected travel increase this year.

AAA projects 2.4 million Mountain West residents will drive to reach their holiday destinations, up half a percentage point from 2013. Air travel will increase by six-tenths of a percent with more than 317,000 travelers boarding planes. Another 273,000 plan to travel by rail, bus and watercraft, a 1.3 percent boost for that category.

Nationally, more than 41 million people will travel 50 miles or more during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, representing a 1.9 percent increase compared to last year.

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