The question talks about "the total amount spent by residents". That has to mean the total amount, because "residents" is pluralized. If instead it meant the amount per person, there would be a few ways to convey that - it could say 'per person', or use the word 'average', or talk about the amount spent by 'each resident' (and there are surely other ways that aren't occurring to me right now).

But the distinction you're asking about doesn't matter in this question, because we're just concerned with the fraction of holiday expenses that are spent on transportation. It won't matter if you measure that by taking the sum total of all expenses, or by looking at expenses per person; you'll get the same result. If people spent $H in total on holidays, and $T in total on transportation, then T/H is the fraction of holiday expenses spent on transportation. If you have n people in total, then on average each person spent $H/n on holidays, and $T/n on transportation, so the fraction the average person spent on transportation was (T/n)/(H/n) = T/H, so is the same as what we found using the sum totals.
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Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total dollar amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997, and about half of the total dollar amount spent on the transportation was airfare. However, the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation.

Type - inference
Boil it down - Half of the total dollar amount spent on the transportation was airfare . The large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation.

A) Most of those who traveled by airplane did so because the airfare to their destination was lower than the cost of other available means of transportation. - Out of scope
B) Most of those who traveled by airplane did so because other means of transportation to their destinations were unavailable. - Out of scope - the argument gives no information about unavailability of other means of transportations
C) Per mile traveled, those who traveled by airplane tended to spend more on transportation to their destination than did those who used other means of transportation. - Incorrect- we do not have any information on cost per mile traveled
D) Overall, people who did not travel by airplane had lower average transportation expenses than people who did. - Correct - majority for people accounted for half of total dollar amount spent on transportation
E) Those who traveled by airplane spent about as much, on average, on other means of transportation as they did on airfare. - Incorrect - may be true but need not be true

Answer D
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well,i think we have not given any information regarding per mile travel.hence we can not conclude something related to per mile travel.
the option at first is very tempting.but in context of the given passage,it stands nowhere

The passage states that "the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation." A 49%-51% split would not represent a "large" majority. There is no numerical cutoff for a "large" majority but if the numbers were that close, it would make more sense to call it a "slim" majority.

For example, if 499 people like Coke and 501 like Pepsi, then most people like Pepsi and the majority of people like Pepsi. But does a large majority prefer Pepsi? Not in this case because the difference is very small. If 800 people like Coke and 200 like Pepsi, then we could say that the large majority of people surveyed like Coke. Again, there really isn't any absolute rule for the numerical cutoff, but if we want to use "large majority", there should be a significant difference.

I hope that helps!
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