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Summer is underway, and malls are still bustling. In July 2024, visits to indoor malls and open-air shopping centers were up 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively, compared to the equivalent period of 2023. Though these year-over-year (YoY) increases were more moderate than the significant jumps observed in May and June, they underscore the segment’s continued solid positioning. Outlet malls, for their parts, saw a slight 0.4% decline in mall visits compared to July 2023.
At first glance, July’s softer numbers – particularly for outlet malls – may appear to herald the start of a retail and mall visit summer slow-down. But zooming into weekly visit data offers further context that can shed light on what may lie ahead in the coming months.
Analyzing week-over-week (WoW) visit trends shows that during the last two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July, all three mall indexes saw visits either decline or hold steady from week to week. The one notable exception was outlet malls – which experienced an impressive and sudden 13.7% WoW surge in visits to outlet malls during the first week of July, driven by the segment's exceptional Independence Day draw. Outlet malls’ subsequent WoW visit drop also reflects this exceptional Fourth of July peak.
The final two weeks of July showed a change in visit trajectory, with all three mall segments experiencing growing WoW visit gains as traffic picked up towards the end of the month. This upward trend can likely be attributed to the back-to-school season getting into full swing, with sales typically running from mid to late July through August and into mid-September.
Here too, the late July WoW visit gains were strongest for outlet malls – perhaps showcasing consumers' prioritization of budget shopping ahead of the new school year.
The Placer.ai Mall Index has frequently highlighted the power of special calendar milestones to drive significant shopping center visit spikes. And Independence Day is no exception.
On July 4th, shoppers nationwide flock to stores for holiday deals, often after enjoying hotdogs, hamburgers, and other festive treats. But though all three mall types have shops that are open on the holiday, it is outlet malls that really draw the crowds. On July 4th, 2024, visits to outlet malls shot up 50.7% compared to an average YTD Thursday. Foot traffic to indoor malls and open-air shopping centers, on the other hand, remained below levels usually seen on Thursdays.
Between Fourth of July sales and a long, summer holiday weekend, many consumers chose to spend their time off this year driving out to outlet malls and browsing their offerings to find the best deals.
Between the Fourth of July and back-to-school shopping, July was yet another busy month across shopping malls nationwide. But how will malls continue to fare in August as school goes back into session and summer vacationers go back to work?
Follow our blog at Placer.ai to find out.
Employers from local governments to major corporations are tightening their return-to-office (RTO) policies – cracking down on practices like coffee-badging and requiring employees to relocate closer to the workplace. Last month, the Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index showed that offices throughout much of the U.S. were the busiest they’d been since the pandemic. But what happened in July 2024?
We dove into the data to find out.
In July 2024, visits to office buildings nationwide were down just 27.8% compared to July 2019 – outpacing even June 2024’s impressive showing. Stated differently, July 2024 office building foot traffic reached 72.2% of July 2019 levels – and the highest it’s been since the pandemic. So even if some RTO mandates are intended to encourage “voluntary turnover” – i.e. make some workers quit – stricter face time policies are also having an appreciable impact on the ground.
Drilling down into the data for major cities nationwide shows that, once again, Miami and New York led the regional recovery pack in July – with visits to offices in both cities reaching about 90% of July 2019 levels. For both cities, as well as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, July 2024 was the single busiest in-office month since 2020. And though Dallas and Washington, D.C. experienced busier months earlier in the year, both hubs outperformed the nationwide baseline in July – with local offices recouping 76.9% and 73.9%, respectively, of July 2019 office foot traffic.
Houston office visits, for their part, continued to be weighed down by stormy weather – with flooding and power outages in the wake of hurricane Beryl keeping many local residents hunkered down at home.
Despite these differences, all 11 analyzed cities experienced year-over-year (YoY) visit growth in July 2024 – further evidence that the office recovery remains very much underway. Miami led with 22.8% YoY visit growth, followed by West Coast hubs San Francisco and Los Angeles. And though hurricane-hit Houston unsurprisingly lagged behind other cities, it too saw YoY growth.
“Hushed hybrid” trends notwithstanding, offices were busier in July 2024 than during any other month since the pandemic. How much longer will the RTO continue to accelerate?
Follow Placer.ai’s data-driven office recovery analyses to find out.
After theaters were dominated by Barbenheimer in 2023, 2024 is shaping up to be another record-breaking year, with several big-name releases. We took a closer look at visitation patterns at major movie theater chains – AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark – to analyze how foot traffic has been impacted by the highly anticipated summer releases of Deadpool & Wolverine and Twisters.
Last year was one of the most exciting ones in recent memory for cinema, with multiple films breaking box-office records and driving foot traffic at movie theaters across the country. But 2024 has had plenty of tricks up its cinematic sleeve, and several summer releases have been meeting the high bar set by Barbenheimer. Inside Out 2, released nationwide on June 14th 2024, kickstarted the summer with a major movie-goer visit boost– and Deadpool & Wolverine, released on July 26, 2024 brought out even bigger crowds.
Indeed, the superhero crossover movie Deadpool & Wolverine is set to be one of the best-performing films of 2024. During the week of July 22nd, 2024 – when Deadpool & Wolverine was released – visits to movie leaders AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark jumped by 132.7% to 140.5% compared to a YTD weekly average. Twisters, released on July 19th, also drove impressive visit boosts ranging from 39.8% to 48.3% during the week of July 15th.
Early screenings have always been a big driver of visits for those lucky enough to grab tickets. And on the day before Deadpool & Wolverine’s big July 26th release, movie theaters already started filling up. On Thursday, July 25th, 2024, visits to AMC, Regal, and Cinemark were up a whopping 231.4% to 249.7% compared to a YTD Thursday average. And Friday, Saturday, and Sunday continued to see visit numbers significantly higher than the YTD visit averages for those days of the week, confirming the movie’s ability to drive visits to theaters. (In absolute terms, Saturday, July 27th was the cinema leaders’ busiest day of the year so far – but since Saturdays tend to be busier than Thursdays, the relative visit spike was somewhat smaller).
Drilling down into the data for major markets shows that though Deadpool & Wolverine was the runaway hit of the summer, Twisters also drove significant visit spikes throughout the country. And of the major markets, some of Twisters’ biggest visit boosts took place in states with plenty of hands-on tornado experience – like Texas, where July 19th visits to AMC, Regal, and Cinemark (combined) were up 98.5% compared to a YTD daily average.
Indeed, looking at the states where Twisters drove the biggest visit spikes shows that many of the top performers were in tornado-prone areas. Oklahoma – where much of the movie was filmed – saw the most impressive Twisters foot traffic bump, with visits to leading cinemas up 224.1% on July 19th, 2024 compared to a YTD daily average. And the tornado-focused thriller also drew outsize crowds in other states where the theme of the movie was more likely than average to resonate with local audiences’ personal experiences – including Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas.
Blockbuster releases like Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, and Inside Out 2 highlight the enduring appeal of out-of-home entertainment, and proves that movie theaters are as relevant as ever.
With more highly-anticipated releases still yet to come in 2024, can movie theaters across the country continue to break visit records?
Visit Placer.ai to stay on top of the latest data-driven leisure and entertainment stories.
Ahead of Toyota’s August 1st earnings call, we dove into the data to explore Q2 2024 visitation patterns at Toyota dealerships nationwide. How did year-over-year (YoY) foot traffic to Toyota showrooms perform in Q2 2024 – and what happened in June 2024, when the CDK Global outage caused paralysis across the industry? Who are the customers driving growth for Toyota – and what lies in store for the brand in the months ahead?
We dove into the data to find out.
During the second quarter of 2024, Toyota subsidiary TMNA (Toyota Motor North America, Inc.) reported a remarkable 9.2% year-over-year (YoY) increase in U.S. Toyota vehicle sales, buoyed by rising demand for hybrid cars. (The company also owns the luxury Lexus line).
And foot traffic data shows that U.S. Toyota dealerships have indeed been significantly busier in Q2 2024 than in Q2 2023, outperforming the wider space. Apart from the regular portion of repair and maintenance visits, the auto brand’s YoY visit growth also reflects an increase in interested buyers. In April and May 2024, Toyota dealerships saw respective YoY visit boosts of 8.6% and 7.4%. And though the pace of YoY foot traffic growth to dealerships dropped in June 2024 – likely due in part to the CDK outage – the brand appears poised for continued visit success throughout the rest of the year.
Toyota’s outsize success is likely due, in part, to its broad appeal – amongst everyone from price-conscious families seeking to maximize reliability and fuel efficiency to more affluent consumers that place a high premium on style. Toyota’s Certified Used Vehicles offering also draws in customers looking for trustworthy, pre-owned cars.
Analyzing Toyota dealerships’ captured markets with psychographics from Spatial.ai’s PersonaLive shows that their trade areas are economically diverse. Toyota attracts customers from areas with higher-than-average shares of both middle and working-class families, as well as more affluent ones. And Young Urban Singles are also more likely than average to visit Toyota dealerships.
Still, in Q2 2024, Toyota dealerships attracted a slightly more affluent consumer than average. The median household income (HHI) of the dealerships’ captured markets was $77.0K, just above the nationwide baseline of $76.1K. And looking at changes in Toyota’s audience over time also shows that the median HHI of its customer base has increased steadily over the past few years – rebounding to, and even exceeding, pre-pandemic levels. In the face of high interest rates, consumers with less room in their budgets may be cutting back on visits to car dealerships. And Toyota’s hybrid first strategy may also be increasing its appeal among more affluent car owners, who are more likely to purchase hybrid vehicles.
Will Toyota continue to thrive in the months ahead? And how will its customer base continue to evolve as inflation stabilizes and interest rates eventually come down?
Follow Placer.ai’s data-driven retail analyses to find out.
All-day breakfast mainstays Denny’s and IHOP (owned by Dine Brands) are two of the most popular full-service restaurants (FSRs) in the United States. But though the chains occupy similar niches, there are some differences between them. We dove into the data to check in with the two breakfast leaders – and see how they stack up against one another on key visitation metrics.
Both Denny’s and IHOP are major players in the FSR space. With its somewhat larger footprint, IHOP captured 6.0% of visits to full-service restaurant chains in the U.S in H1 2024, while Denny’s captured 5.0%. And despite the headwinds that continued to weigh on the sector this year, both chains saw modest YoY foot traffic gains in May and June 2024.
(The relatively big YoY fluctuations that both chains experienced in March and April 2024 are likely due in part to calendar shifts: March 2024 had one more weekend than March 2023, while April 2024 had one fewer weekend than April 2023. The two chains’ YoY June performance was also likely buoyed by an extra weekend in June 2024.)
Who are IHOP’s and Denny’s typical customers? Given the two diners’ affordable offerings, it may come as no surprise that both restaurants draw visitors from captured markets with median household incomes below the nationwide baseline of $76.1K – $67.5K for Denny’s and $69.2K for IHOP.* Both chains also draw substantial shares of customers from Blue Collar Suburbs.
But each breakfast leader also draws a unique mix of visitors from a range of segments – with Denny’s attracting higher shares of middle-class urbanites and IHOP attracting higher shares of wealthy and upper-middle-class suburbanites.
Wealthy Suburban Families, for example, made up 9.5% of IHOP’s captured market and 8.1% of Denny’s in H1 2024 – while Young Urban Singles made up 10.5% of Denny’s captured market and 9.2% of IHOP’s. And while Denny’s visitors were more likely to hail from middle-class Near-Urban Diverse Families, IHOP visitors were more likely to be from upper-middle-class Upper Suburban Diverse Families.
The ability of both chains to attract a wide variety of audiences across economic strata is an important factor in their success and staying power.
*Based on STI: PopStats, combined with Placer.ai trade area data for January-June 2024.
Plenty of people eat at all-day breakfast chains on a regular basis: In June 2024, for example, 16.9% and 14.1% of visitors to Denny’s and IHOP, respectively, frequented the chains at least twice during the month. But for both restaurants, holidays and other special milestones – including Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Veteran’s Day – drive major visit spikes.
Here too, however, the data reveals important differences between the two chains. Generally speaking, IHOP’s special-occasion visit boosts (compared to annual daily averages) are more substantial than those of Denny’s. And while for Denny’s, Christmas Day is the busiest day of the year, for IHOP, Mother’s Day reigns supreme. And Veteran’s Day – which both IHOP and Denny’s mark with free meals for current and former servicemen and women – is more important for IHOP than for Denny’s.
A look at the daily and hourly breakdown of visits to IHOP and Denny’s shows that the two chains also follow similar visitation patterns – but with a twist. For both restaurants, Sunday morning between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM is the single most busiest daypart of the week – when many customers likely visit the chains to enjoy leisurely weekend brunches. Predictably, the 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM daypart is also bustling for both breakfast brands throughout the rest of the week.
But though IHOP and Denny’s both have many restaurants that are open 24/7, Denny’s sees a greater share of evening and late night visits than IHOP – perhaps reflecting the chain’s recent push to increase the number of locations open in the wee hours. Between January and June 2024, Friday and Saturday evenings between 10:00 PM and 1:00 AM drew 2.3% and 2.5%, respectively, of weekly visits to Denny’s – compared to just 1.6% and 1.7%, respectively, for IHOP.
IHOP and Denny’s are two of the most important FSR chains on the category landscape. And location analytics shows that there’s plenty of room at the top for both chains, which despite similar offerings serve audiences with somewhat different profiles and behaviors.
For more data-driven restaurant insights, follow Placer.ai.
Warby Parker continues to impress. The company got its start as an online eyewear retailer before opening its first brick-and-mortar location in 2013, and has since expanded rapidly to operate over 200 stores nationwide.
What is driving its success? We dove into the data to find out.
Warby Parker debuted its innovative retail model in 2010, disrupting an eyewear industry dominated by legacy brands. The company’s direct-to-consumer model and online try-on options proved highly popular, and as the brand moved offline, its physical stores flourished.
And more than decade after Warby Parker opened its first brick-and-mortar store, the chain’s offline locations continue to thrive. Between January and June 2024, YoY visits to Warby Parker increased significantly as the chain continued to expand – growing from 204 U.S. locations at the end of Q1 2023 to over 250 today. Over the same period, the average number of visits to each Warby Parker store also rose (except in January, when retail was hard hit by inclement weather) – showing that the brand’s growing footprint is meeting robust demand.
Zooming out on Warby Parker’s monthly visit trajectory – compared to a July 2019 baseline – reveals just how well-positioned the company is heading into the summer. Aside from a brief dip during the early days of the pandemic, the company’s visits have been on a remarkable upward trend, outpacing visits to eye care retailers by a wide margin.
The baseline trend analysis also shows that Warby Parker is particularly prone to seasonal visit fluctuations – with notable foot traffic boosts during the December holiday season. And like other eye care chains, Warby Parker also experiences smaller visit increases during the summer months, as back-to-school shopping gets underway. Given Warby Parker’s strong June 2024 performance, the chain appears poised to enjoy a strong July and August this year.
Warby Parker’s robust positioning heading into the summer may be driven, in part, by its special appeal to college students. Analyzing Warby Parker’s captured market with demographics and psychographics from STI’s PopStats and Landscape datasets shows that the eyewear brand draws customers from trade areas with significantly higher shares of this coveted demographic than the wider eyewear segment: Between January and June 2024 STI: Landscape’s Collegian segment made up 4.2% of Warby Parker’s captured market, compared to just 1.2% for the wider eyewear category. As back-to-college shopping picks up steam, college students may flock to the chain to upgrade their wardrobes with trendy eyeglasses.
And though Warby Parker’s captured market features a lower share of families with children than the category average, parents – who may also get their kids fitted for new glasses before the start of the school year – make up a significant portion of the brand’s visitor base.
Warby Parker has successfully transitioned from an online retailer to a brick-and-mortar powerhouse. Will the chain continue to meet with success as it expands even further?
Visit Placer.ai to keep up with the latest data-driven retail insights.
Walmart, Target, and Costco are three of the most popular retailers in the country, drawing millions of shoppers through their doors each day. Each of these retail giants boasts distinct strengths and strategies that cater to their unique customer bases, allowing them to thrive in a highly competitive market.
This white paper takes a closer look at some of the factors that are helping the three chains flourish. How does Walmart’s positioning as a family-friendly retailer help it drive visits in its more competitive markets? How can Target leverage its reach to drive more loyal visits? And what does the increase in young shoppers frequenting membership warehouse clubs mean for Costco?
We dove into the location analytics to explore these questions further.
Examining monthly visitation patterns for the three retail giants shows Costco’s wholesale club model leading the way with consistent year-over-year (YoY) visit growth – ranging from 6.1% in stormy January 2024 to 13.3% in June. Family favorite Walmart followed closely behind, seeing YoY foot traffic growth during all but two months, when visits briefly trailed slightly behind 2023 levels before rebounding.
Target, meanwhile, had a slower start to the year, with visits trending below 2023 levels for most of January to April. Over this same period (the three months ending May 2024), Target reported a 3.7% decline in YoY comparable sales. But since then, things have begun to turn around for the chain, with YoY visits rising in May (2.5%), June (8.9%), and July (4.7%). This renewed visit growth into the second half of the year bodes well for the superstore – and the ongoing back-to-school season may well push visits up further as the summer winds down.
For all three chains, Q2 2024’s visit success has likely been bolstered in part by summer deals and intensifying price wars – as the retailers slash prices to woo inflation-weary consumers back to the store.
Over the past few years, consumer behaviors have been changing rapidly in response to shifting economic conditions. This next section explores some of these changes at Walmart, Target, and Costco, to better understand what may be driving these shifts.
One way that consumers have traditionally responded to inflation and other headwinds has been through the adoption of mission-driven shopping – making fewer, but longer, trips to retailers, so that every visit counts. Superstores and wholesale clubs, which offer one-stop shopping experiences, have long been prime destinations for these extended shopping trips. And even during periods when visits have lagged, these retailers have often benefited from extended dwell times – leading to bigger basket sizes.
A look at changes in average dwell times at Walmart and Target suggests that as YoY visits have picked up, dwell times have come down – perhaps reflecting a normalization of consumers’ shopping patterns. With inflation stabilizing and gas prices lower than they were in 2022 and 2023, customers may feel less pressure to consolidate shopping trips than they have in recent years.
In contrast, Costco’s comparatively long dwell times have remained stable over the past several years. The warehouse club’s bulk offerings, plentiful free samples, and inexpensive food court encourage shoppers to spend more time browsing the aisles than they would at other retailers. And even if mission-driven shopping continues to subside, Costco customers will likely keep on making extra-long shopping trips.
While inflation is cooling faster than expected, prices remain high, and new players are stepping into the retail space occupied by Walmart, Target, and Costco – especially dollar stores. Though higher-income customers increasingly rely on the three retail giants for many of their purchases, customers of more modest means are often drawn to the rock-bottom prices offered at dollar stores.
And analyzing the cross-shopping patterns of visitors to Walmart, Target, and Costco shows that growing shares of visitors to the three behemoths also visit Dollar Tree on a regular basis. In Q2 2019, the share of visitors to Walmart, Target, and Costco who frequented Dollar Tree at least three times ranged between 9.8% and 13.7%. But by Q2 2024, that share rose to 16.7%-21.6%.
Dollar Tree is leaning into this increased interest among superstore shoppers. Over the past year, Dollar Tree added some 350 Dollar Tree locations, even as it shuttered nearly 400 Family Dollar stores. And the chain recently acquired the leases of some 170 99 Cents Only Stores – offering Dollar Tree access to a customer base accustomed to buying everything from groceries to household goods. As Dollar Tree continues to grow its footprint and expand its food offerings, the chain will be better positioned than ever to provide a real challenge to Walmart, Target, and Costco.
Still, the three retail giants each have unique offerings that distinguish them from dollar stores. This next section examines what sets Walmart, Target, and Costco apart – and how they can continue to strengthen their competitive edge.
With competition on the rise, Walmart, Target, and Costco must display agility in navigating an ever-evolving market landscape. This section dives into the data for each chain’s more successful metro areas to see what factors are helping them outperform nationwide averages – and what metrics the retailers can harness to try to replicate these results nationwide.
Target recently expanded its Target Circle Rewards program, rolling out three new tiers for its 100 million members. And this focus on loyalty has proven successful for the chain. Demographic and visitation data reveal a strong correlation between the median household incomes (HHIs) of Target locations’ captured markets across CBSAs (core-based statistical areas), and their share of loyal visitors in Q2 2024: CBSAs where Target locations’ captured markets had higher median HHIs also tended to draw more repeat monthly visitors.
Target’s captured markets in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, LA CBSA, for example, featured a median HHI of $89.8K in Q2 2024 – and 48.0% of the chain’s LA visitors frequented a Target at least twice a month during the quarter. Target stores in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI CBSA, where the chain’s captured markets had a median HHI of $88.7K in Q2 2024, also had a loyalty rate of 48.0%.
Target generally attracts a more affluent audience than Walmart. And even as the superstore slashes prices to attract more price-conscious consumers, the retailer is also taking steps likely to enhance its popularity among higher-income households. In April 2024, Target debuted a paid membership tier within its loyalty program offering perks like same-day delivery for a fee. Maintaining and expanding these premium offerings will be key for Target as it seeks to attract more affluent customers and replicate its high-performing results in CBSAs nationwide.
The persistent inflation of the past few years, while challenging for some retailers, has also created new opportunities – particularly for wholesalers. Membership warehouse clubs, including Costco, are gaining popularity among younger shoppers, a cohort often looking for new ways to stretch their more limited budgets. An October 2023 survey revealed that nearly 15% of respondents aged 18 to 24 and 17% of those aged 25 to 30 shop at Costco.
A closer look at some of Costco’s best-performing CBSAs for YoY visit-per-location growth highlights the significance of these younger shoppers: In H1 2024, the company’s YoY visit-per-location growth was strongest in areas with higher-than-average shares of young urban singles.
For example, the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA CBSA experienced visit-per-location growth of 10.4% YoY in H1 2024, while the nationwide average stood at 7.9%. And the CBSA’s share of Young Urban Singles, defined by the Spatial.ai: PersonaLive dataset as “singles starting their careers in trade and service jobs,” was 12.1%, well above Costco’s nationwide average of 7.3%.
Walmart is a one-stop shop for everything from affordable groceries to clothing to home furnishings, making it especially popular among families. The retailer actively courts this segment with baby offerings designed to meet the needs of both kids and parents, virtual offerings in the metaverse, and collectible toys.
And visitation data reveals a connection between the extent of different Walmart locations’ YoY visit growth and the share of households with children in their captured markets.
In H1 2024, nationwide visits to Walmart increased by 4.1% YoY, while the share of households with children in the chain’s overall captured market hovered just under the nationwide baseline. But in some CBSAs where Walmart outpaced this nationwide growth, the retail giant also proved especially adept at attracting parental households – outpacing relevant statewide baselines.
In Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA, for example, Walmart experienced 5.0% YoY visit growth in H1 2024 – while the share of households with children in the chain’s local captured market stood 7% above the Massachusetts state average. And in Grand Rapids-Kentwood, MI, where Walmart’s share of parental households outpaced the Minnesota state average by an even wider 15% margin, the retailer saw impressive 7.3% YoY visit growth. This pattern repeated itself in other metro areas, suggesting that there may be a correlation between local Walmart locations’ visit growth and their relative ability to draw households with children.
Walmart can continue solidifying its market position by leaning into its family-oriented offerings and expanding its footprint in regions with growing populations of young families.
Walmart, Target, and Costco all experienced YoY visit growth in the final months of H1 2024, with Costco leading the way. And though the three chains still face considerable challenges, each one brings unique strengths to the table. By continuously innovating and responding to changing market conditions, Walmart, Target, and Costco can not only overcome obstacles but also leverage them to reinforce their market positions and drive continued growth.
The first Lollapalooza – a four-day music festival – took place in 1991. Chicago’s Grant Park became the event’s permanent home (at least in the United States) in 2005, drawing thousands of revelers and music fans to the park each year.
This year, the festival once again demonstrated its powerful impact on the city. On August 1st, 2024, visits to Grant Park surged by 1,313.2% relative to the YTD daily average, as crowds converged on the park to see Chappell Roan’s much-anticipated performance. And during the first three days of the event, the event drew significantly more foot traffic than in 2023 – with visits up 18.9% to 35.9% compared to the first three days of last year’s festival (August 3rd to 5th, 2023).
Lollapalooza led to a dramatic spike in visits to Grant Park – and it also attracted a different type of visitor compared to the rest of the year.
Analyzing Grant Park’s captured market with Spatial.ai’s PersonaLive dataset reveals that Lollapalooza attendees are more likely to belong to the “Young Professionals” and “Ultra Wealthy Families” segment groups than the typical Grant Park visitor.
By contrast, the “Near-Urban Diverse Families” segment group, comprising middle-class diverse families living in or near cities, made up only 6.5% of visitors during the festival, compared to 12.0% during the rest of the year.
Additionally, visitors during Lollapalooza came from areas with higher HHIs than both the nationwide baseline of $76.1K and the average for park visitors throughout the year. Understanding the demographic profile of visitors to the park during Lollapalooza can help planners and city officials tailor future events to these segment groups – or look for ways to make the festival accessible to a wider range of music lovers.
Lollapalooza’s impact on Chicago extended beyond the boundaries of Grant Park, with nearby hotels seeing remarkable surges in foot traffic. The Congress Plaza Hotel on South Michigan Avenue witnessed a staggering 249.1% rise in visits during the week of July 29, 2024, compared to the YTD visit average. And Travelodge on East Harrison Street saw an impressive 181.8% increase. These spikes reflect the festival’s draw not just for locals but for out-of-town visitors who fill hotels across the city.
The North Michigan Avenue retail corridor also enjoyed a significant increase in foot traffic during the festival, with visits on Thursday, August 1st 56.0% higher than the YTD Thursday visit average. On Friday, August 2nd, visits to the corridor were 55.7% higher than the Friday visit average. These numbers highlight Lollapalooza’s role in driving economic activity across Chicago, as festival-goers venture beyond the park to explore the city’s vibrant retail and hospitality offerings.
City parks often serve as community hubs, and Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY, has been a major gathering point for New Yorkers. The park hosted one of New York’s most beloved summer concerts – Governors Ball – which moved from Governors Island to Flushing Meadows in 2023.
During the festival (June 9th -11th, 2024), musicians like Post Malone and The Killers drew massive crowds to the park, with visits soaring to the highest levels seen all year. On June 9th, the opening day of the festival, foot traffic in the park was up 214.8% compared to the YTD daily average, and at its height, on June 8th, the festival drew 392.7% more visits than the YTD average.
The park also hosted other big events this summer – a July 21st set by DMC helped boost visits to 185.1% above the YTD average. And the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival on August 3rd and 4th led to major visit boosts of 221.4% and 51.6%, respectively.
These events not only draw large crowds, but also highlight the park’s role as a space where cultural and civic life can find expression, flourish, and contribute to the health of local communities.
Analyzing changes in Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s trade area size offers insight into how far people are willing to travel for these events. During Governors Ball, for example, the park’s trade area ballooned to 254.5 square miles, showing the festival's wide appeal. On July 20th, by contrast, when the park hosted several local bands and DJs, the trade area was a much more modest 57.0 square miles.
Summer events drive community engagement, economic activity, and civic pride. Cities that invest in their parks and event hubs, fostering lively and inclusive spaces, can create lasting value for both residents and visitors, enriching the cultural and social life of urban areas.
For more data-driven civic stories, visit Placer.ai.
The pandemic and economic headwinds that marked the past few years presented the multi-billion dollar hotel industry with significant challenges. But five years later, the industry is rallying – and some hotel segments are showing significant growth.
This white paper delves into location analytics across six major hotel categories – Luxury Hotels, Upper Upscale Hotels, Upscale Hotels, Upper Midscale Hotels, Midscale Hotels, and Economy Hotels – to explore the current state of the American hospitality market. The report examines changes in guest behavior, personas, and characteristics and looks at factors driving current visitation trends.
Overall, visits to hotels were 4.3% lower in Q2 2024 than in Q2 2019 (pre-pandemic). But this metric only tells part of the story. A deeper dive into the data shows that each hotel tier has been on a more nuanced recovery trajectory.
Economy chains – those offering the most basic accommodations at the lowest prices – saw visits down 24.6% in Q2 2024 compared to pre-pandemic – likely due in part to hotel closures that have plagued the tier in recent years. Though these chains were initially less impacted by the pandemic, they were dealt a significant blow by inflation – and have seen visits decline over the past three years. As hotels that cater to the most price-sensitive guests, these chains are particularly vulnerable to rising costs, and the first to suffer when consumer confidence takes a hit.
Luxury Hotels, on the other hand, have seen accelerated visit growth over the past year – and have succeeded in closing their pre-pandemic visit gap. Upscale chains, too, saw Q2 2024 visits on par with Q2 2019 levels. As tiers that serve wealthier guests with more disposable income, Luxury and Upscale Hotels are continuing to thrive in the face of headwinds.
But it is the Upper Midscale level – a tier that includes brands like Trademark Collection by Wyndham, Fairfield by Marriott, Holiday Inn Express by IHG Hotels & Resorts, and Hampton by Hilton – that has experienced the most robust visit growth compared to pre-pandemic. In Q2 2024, Upper Midscale Hotels drew 3.5% more visits than in Q2 2019. And during last year’s peak season (Q3 2023), Upper Midscale hotels saw the biggest visit boost of any analyzed tier.
As mid-range hotels that still offer a broad range of amenities, Upper Midscale chains strike a balance between indulgence and affordability. And perhaps unsurprisingly, hotel operators have been investing in this tier: In Q4 2023, Upper Midscale Hotels had the highest project count of any tier in the U.S. hotel construction and renovation pipeline.
The shift in favor of Upper Midscale Hotels and away from Economy chains is also evident when analyzing changes in relative visit share among the six hotel categories.
Upper Midscale hotels have always been major players: In H1 2019 they drew 28.7% of overall hotel visits – the most of any tier. But by H1 2024, their share of visits increased to 31.2%. Upscale Hotels – the second-largest tier – also saw their visit share increase, from 24.8% to 26.1%.
Meanwhile, Economy, Midscale, and Upper Upscale Hotels saw drops in visit share – with Economy chains, unsurprisingly, seeing the biggest decline. Luxury Hotels, for their parts, held firmly onto their piece of the pie, drawing 2.8% of visits in H1 2024.
Who are the visitors fueling the Upper Midscale visit revival? This next section explores shifts in visitor demographics to four Upper Midscale chains that are outperforming pre-pandemic visit levels: Trademark Collection by Wyndham, Holiday Inn Express by IHG Hotels & Resorts, Fairfield by Marriott, and Hampton by Hilton.
Analyzing the captured markets* of the four chains with demographics from STI: Popstats (2023) shows variance in the relative affluence of their visitor bases.
Fairfield by Marriott drew visitors from areas with a median household income (HHI) of $84.0K in H1 2024, well above the nationwide average of $76.1K. Hampton by Hilton and Trademark Collection by Wyndham, for their parts, drew guests from areas with respective HHIs of $79.6K and $78.5K – just above the nationwide average. Meanwhile, Holiday Inn Express by IHG Hotels & Resorts drew visitors from areas below the nationwide average.
But all four brands saw increases in the median HHIs of their captured markets over the past five years. This provides a further indication that it is wealthier consumers – those who have had to cut back less in the face of inflation – who are driving hotel recovery in 2024.
(*A chain’s captured market is obtained by weighting each Census Block Group (CBG) in its trade area according to the CBG’s share of visits to the chain – and so reflects the population that actually visits the chain in practice.)
Much of the Upper Midscale visit growth is being driven by chain expansion. But in some areas of the country, the average number of visits to individual hotel locations is also on the rise – highlighting especially robust growth potential.
Analyzing visits to existing Upper Midscale chains in four metropolitan areas with booming tourism industries – Salt Lake City, UT, Palm Bay, FL, San Diego, CA, and Richmond, VA – shows that these markets feature robust untapped demand.
Utah, for example, has emerged as a tourist hotspot in recent years – with millions of visitors flocking each year to local destinations like Salt Lake City to see the sights and take in the great outdoors. And Upper Midscale hotels in the region are reaping the benefits. In H1 2024, the overall number of visits to Upper Midscale chains in Salt Lake City was 69.4% higher than in H1 2019. Though some of this increase can be attributed to local chain expansion, the average number of visits to each individual Upper Midscale location in the area also rose by 12.5% over the same period.
Palm Bay, FL (the Space Coast) – another tourist favorite – is experiencing a similar trend. Between H1 2019 and H1 2024, overall visits to local Upper Midscale hotel chains grew by 36.4% – while the average number of visits per location increased a substantial 16.9%. Given this strong demand, it may come as no surprise that the area is undergoing a hotel construction boom. Upper Midscale hotels in other areas with flourishing tourism sectors, like San Diego, CA and Richmond, VA, are seeing similar trends, with increases in both overall visits and and in the average number of visits per location.
Though Economy chains have underperformed versus other categories in recent years, the tier does feature some bright spots. Some extended-stay brands in the Economy tier – hotels with perks and amenities that cater to the needs of longer-stay travelers – are succeeding despite category headwinds.
Choice Hotels’ portfolio, for example, includes WoodSpring Suites, an Economy chain offering affordable extended-stay accommodations in 35 states. In H1 2024, the chain drew 7.7% more visits than in the first half of 2019 – even as the wider Economy sector continued to languish. InTown Suites, another Economy extended stay chain, saw visits increase by 8.9% over the same period.
And location intelligence shows that the success of these two chains is likely being driven, in part, by their growing appeal to young, well-educated professionals. In H1 2019, households belonging to Spatial.ai: PersonaLive’s “Young Professionals” segment made up 9.6% of WoodSpring Suites’ captured market. But by H1 2024, the share of this group jumped dramatically to 13.3%. At the same time, InTown Suites saw its share of Young Professionals increase from 12.0% to 13.4%.
Whether due to an affinity for prolonged “workcations” (so-called “bleisure” excursions) or an embrace of super-commuting, younger guests have emerged as key drivers of growth for the extended stay segment. And by offering low–cost accommodations that meet the needs of these travelers, Economy chains can continue to grow their share of the pie.
The hospitality industry recovery continues – led by Upper Midscale Hotels, which offer elevated experiences that don’t break the bank. But today’s market has room for other tiers as well. By keeping abreast of local visitation patterns and changing consumer profiles, hotels across chain scales can personalize the visitor experience and drive customer satisfaction.
