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Foot traffic to retail corridors nationwide plummeted during the shelter-in-place restrictions of 2020, and recent data shows that visits have yet to fully recover to 2019 levels. While traffic has steadily improved each year since the pandemic lows, 2025 visits remain 11.7% below their pre-pandemic baseline.
What is holding the retail corridor recovery back? We dove into the data to find out.
Retail corridors are typically concentrated in downtown areas, featuring a mix of stores, restaurants, bars, and offices – and are often surrounded by even more office space. And comparing average visits per day of week in 2025 and 2019 suggests that the persistence of hybrid and remote work is likely driving much of the lag.
Monday through Thursday foot traffic to retail corridors was down between 16.3% and 17.3% in 2025 compared to 2019. The gap narrowed to 11.7% on Friday as activity began to shift toward the weekend, and nearly disappeared on Saturday (-2.8%) and Sunday (-4.2%).
The much larger weekday deficit suggests that reduced office attendance continues to weigh on downtown retail activity. With fewer workers commuting daily, there are fewer pre-work coffee stops, lunchtime errands, and spontaneous after-work visits that once fueled these corridors. So while leisure-driven weekend traffic has largely rebounded, the office-driven weekday ecosystem that historically sustained retail corridors has yet to fully return.
Hourly data reinforces the role that office attendance (or lack thereof) is playing in the retail corridor visit lag. The steepest declines are concentrated squarely within traditional workday hours: visits between 7 AM and 11 AM are down 23.7% compared to 2019, followed by a 19.2% decline from 11 AM to 3 PM. But the gap is much more moderate both earlier and later in the day (from 12 AM to 7 AM and 3 PM to 12 PM) in the day later in the day, with visits down 13.7% from 3 PM to 7 PM and just 9.6% after 7 PM. This suggests that the missing traffic is closely tied to reduced daily commuting – fewer morning coffee runs, lunch breaks, and midday errands – while evening and leisure-oriented visits have proven far more resilient. With more schedule flexibility, downtown businesses and civic stakeholders may need to focus on creating reasons for consumers to intentionally visit downtowns during slower weekday hours, rather than relying on routine commuter traffic to fill stores organically.
The retail corridor traffic data suggests that downtowns are facing a structural shift in when and why people visit. With fewer daily commuters, stakeholders may need to focus less on restoring a five-day office week and more on activating the days and hours that already show strength. Civic leaders can prioritize safety, cleanliness, transit reliability, and targeted weekday programming or events that encourage intentional trips downtown. Retailers and dining concepts can adapt hours, promotions, and experiences to better align with flexible work schedules. In a hybrid era, success may depend less on recreating old commuting patterns and more on making downtown a destination people choose – not just a place they pass through.
For more data-driven retail insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
Downtown Austin is navigating a period of unusual complexity. A convention center renovation and major highway construction have created significant disruption, while extreme summer heat and pullbacks in consumer spending are adding further pressure.
Yet despite these headwinds, visitation is nearing pre-pandemic levels. And a key factor driving Austin’s recovery has been its deliberate use of data to guide strategy, align stakeholders, and deploy resources where they can have the greatest impact.
Since 2022, Downtown Austin has been on a steady recovery trajectory. By 2025, non-resident and non-employee visits to the area reached 94.4% of 2019 levels – a milestone that becomes even more meaningful against the backdrop of this year’s intensely hot summer and the temporary closure of Austin’s convention center, which has remained offline since April 2025.
This data reveals resilience that might otherwise have gone unnoticed – critical framing when coordinating across agencies and reassuring stakeholders that downtown remains a reliable economic engine even during infrastructure transitions.
The composition of that visitation tells an equally important story. A growing share of visitors to downtown Austin are coming from within Texas – especially on weekends.
In an environment where consumers are more value-conscious and long-haul travel remains uneven, this regional draw has become a strategic asset. In-state travelers are more likely to make shorter, repeat trips, creating consistent demand for restaurants, entertainment venues, and retail corridors.
The Downtown Austin Alliance uses this insight to refine both marketing and access strategies. Partnerships such as discounted ride programs within a 30-mile radius reduce friction for local visitors during the holiday season, while targeted programming ensures downtown remains competitive as a weekend destination.
At the policy level, this data strengthens the case that downtown’s success benefits the broader state economy. When a rising share of visitors originates within Texas, the dollars spent downtown circulate locally – supporting jobs, generating tax revenue, and reinforcing Austin’s role as an economic anchor.
Data also helps the Alliance optimize services around major events that drive tourism to Austin – such as the annual ACL Music Festival and Formula 1 Grand Prix – supporting operational precision. High-traffic areas receive intensified cleaning and hospitality services, while lower-traffic zones become candidates for murals, activations, and smaller-scale programming designed to distribute energy more evenly. Event-driven data also informs conversations with transportation partners as construction continues to reshape mobility routes.
The strategic use of data is also evident in the revitalization of East Sixth Street. Long known as a historic entertainment corridor with a late-night reputation, the district is now the focus of a coordinated effort to evolve its positioning and offerings.
And data has played an important role in getting people on board. Location analytics, for example, show that out-of-market visitors to the district are coming from more affluent areas, showing that spending power exists and is growing – and that the district’s offerings may have room to evolve alongside its audience.
For property owners and local businesses, this data provides a clearer picture of market potential. And for public-sector partners, it strengthens the case for infrastructure upgrades and placemaking investments.
Austin’s experience offers a broader lesson for cities navigating disruption. Infrastructure transitions, climate pressures, and evolving travel patterns present real challenges – but by grounding placemaking strategies in clear, measurable data, Austin is strengthening downtown’s economic foundation and aligning stakeholders around a shared vision.
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Amid a tightening job market, the list of employers requiring workers to show up in person – many now mandating five days a week – continues to grow. But how did the office recovery fare in February 2026, a month marked by heavy snowstorms across major Northeast markets?
We dove into the data to find out.
In February 2026, visits to the Placer.ai Nationwide Office Index were 31.9% below 2019 levels – marking the smallest February post-pandemic visit gap to date. Overall attendance even slightly outpaced February 2024, a leap year that benefited from 20 business days instead of the usual 19.
While this is hardly the most impressive RTO showing we’ve seen in recent months, February’s gains came in spite of meaningful headwinds.
A late-February blizzard disrupted major Northeast markets, driving a year-over-year (YoY) decline in New York City office visits and widening Manhattan’s post-pandemic gap to 21.3% below 2019 levels. Boston, also hit hard by snow, saw visits remain flat YoY, slipping behind San Francisco and Denver in overall recovery progress.
By contrast, cities in other regions posted clear gains, with San Francisco – still benefiting from AI-driven hiring and renewed tech activity – once again seeing some of the strongest growth at +11.9% YoY.
February’s performance underscores a familiar pattern of month-to-month fluctuation, even as the broader RTO trajectory continues its upward climb. Regional dynamics – from weather disruptions to sector-specific hiring cycles – are shaping local outcomes, but the national baseline for office utilization is steadily rising.
For more data driven CRE insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
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The bifurcated consumer trends established in the second half of 2025 have persisted. While higher-income shoppers maintain relatively stable spending habits, lower- and middle-income households continue to feel the squeeze on essential categories like groceries and fuel. These consumers have become increasingly selective and price-sensitive, actively pivoting away from traditional mid-market chains in favor of discount retailers and value-oriented brands. Because affordability remains a core focus, average households are spreading their visits across a wider number of non-discretionary stores to hunt for deals. For example, our data shows that grocery visit growth is currently being driven by low- and middle-income households, as elevated food costs necessitate more frequent, budget-conscious trips.
However, despite this intense focus on everyday value, it would be a mistake to count out the discretionary sector, where consumer visits have also been mostly positive year-over-year (YoY) since the start of 2026. Despite weather-driven volatility, we continue to see healthy demand for discretionary categories as consumers start to put their tax refunds to work, actively seeking affordable indulgences and high-end brands at a discount.
E-commerce fulfillment centers are also seeing robust activity. Excluding a brief weather-related slump in late January, visits to these facilities are growing at a high-single to low-double-digit clip.
This surge in logistics activity is being driven by a perfect storm of consumer behavior and retail strategy: value-seeking shoppers, massive supply chain investments from giants like Walmart and Target, and the rise of frictionless "agentic" and social commerce. Furthermore, record-high product returns are forcing these centers to process a massive wave of reverse logistics, keeping facility utilization incredibly high.
As delayed tax refunds finally hit consumer bank accounts in the months ahead, we expect this strong e-commerce and fulfillment momentum to continue.
Manufacturing data has been highly volatile in early 2026. Placer.ai’s Industrial Manufacturing Index – which measures physical visits to manufacturing facilities across a wide range of verticals – showed an ebb and flow in the early weeks of the year. Severe winter storms heavily weighed on facility visits in late January, followed by a clear rebound in February.
This physical, on-the-ground improvement aligns with the latest macroeconomic indicators. According to the most recent ISM report, the U.S. manufacturing sector expanded for the second consecutive month in February, with the PMI registering a solid 52.4. Crucially, this growth is being driven by strong forward-looking demand, as the ISM New Orders Index remained firmly in expansion territory at 55.8. Ultimately, while underlying production and new orders show sustained momentum, unpredictable weather patterns continue to create short-term fluctuations in actual facility operations.
Looking ahead, volatility will likely be the baseline expectation for both the retail and manufacturing sectors throughout 2026. Unpredictable weather events, shifting supply chain dynamics, and the complexities of lapping 2025's macroeconomic hurdles will continue to create week-to-week fluctuations in physical foot traffic and industrial output.
Yet, beneath this turbulence lies a remarkably stable foundation: the American consumer. Despite the ongoing pressures of inflation and depleted household savings, shoppers remain incredibly resilient. They are highly strategic – pinching pennies on daily essentials and heavily utilizing value channels – precisely so they can continue to fund discretionary spending and lifestyle upgrades. The market may be volatile, but the 2026 consumer is proving that they are willing and able to spend when the value proposition is right.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
With its recent IPO, Bob’s Discount Furniture has officially entered a new chapter, stepping onto the public stage at a time when the home furnishings sector continues to face macroeconomic pressures. Yet despite these challenges, Bob’s has demonstrated notable momentum. This AI-powered data analysis takes a closer look at Bob’s performance, examining traffic trends, demographic positioning, and cross-shopping behavior to better understand what’s driving the company’s success.
Bob’s continued expansion supported year-over-year (YoY) visit increases throughout 2025 – but growth was not driven by footprint alone. Visits per location to the chain also climbed by 1.8% in 2025, indicating that existing stores captured incremental demand alongside new openings.
Analysis of Bob’s and the broader home furnishings category suggests that a favorable mix of value-oriented and affluent shoppers may be supporting the brand’s growth.
In 2025, the median household income of Bob’s captured market was $89.0K – below the category median of $92.5K, yet above the nationwide median of $79.6K. A similar pattern emerged when examining Bob’s audience by income groups. Among households earning under $100K and those earning over $150K, Bob’s share fell between the category benchmark and the national baseline.
This positioning suggests that while Bob’s resonates strongly with value-seeking consumers, its appeal is not limited to lower-income households – which could reflect the strength of its "Good, Better, Best" assortment strategy. As value-prioritization has gained traction across income levels, Bob’s appears to be attracting shoppers who are price-conscious yet still maintain discretionary spending power – a combination that is especially advantageous in a bigger-ticket category like furniture.
Reinforcing its position as a primary destination for furniture shoppers appears to be another factor fueling Bob’s growth.
AI-based location intelligence reveals that in 2025, the share of Bob’s visitors who also visited other major home furnishings chains declined compared to 2024. The shift was consistent across several key competitors, suggesting that fewer shoppers felt compelled to compare offerings at other chains before visiting Bob's Discount Furniture.
In a category where consumers frequently comparison-shop, declining cross-visitation may signal that Bob’s relaxed in-store environment – featuring the “Little Bob” sock-puppet and complementary cafés – is resonating with shoppers, reducing the incentive to look elsewhere.
These insights underscore Bob’s differentiated strategy within a volatile retail landscape. By combining disciplined expansion with broad cross-income appeal and brand loyalty, Bob’s is building both growth and resilience as it enters its public chapter.
Will Bob’s continue to find success in 2026? Visit Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
Traffic to Darden banners remained relatively stable in 2025, with the company seeing an average increase of 1.2% in overall visits coupled with a slight dip of 0.3% in average visits per venue across its brands. Average visits per venue improved towards the end of the year relative to the annual average, growing 1.5% YoY in Q4 2025 – likely due to the closure of several Bahama Breeze restaurants in 2025, part of the company's plans to sunset the banner entirely by April 2026.
Analyzing traffic by banner points to clear resilience at the top of the market, with upscale casual and premium brands such as Yard House and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse generally showing the strongest and most consistent traffic growth. This pattern suggests that higher-income consumers remain relatively insulated and willing to spend, even amid broader volatility.
At the same time, LongHorn Steakhouse, one of Darden’s largest brands, also emerged as a standout performer, delivering steady positive traffic across multiple months. Given its scale within the portfolio, LongHorn likely made an outsized contribution to Darden’s overall positive traffic trends, helping to offset softness in other chains and reinforcing the company’s momentum.
Same-store YoY visit trends in recent months are very close to overall visit trends, suggesting that Darden’s traffic trends are largely same-store-driven rather than expansion-driven, with little evidence that unit growth is materially distorting overall traffic trends. Premium brands continue to perform well, and LongHorn is generating steady same-store growth across its large footprint, suggesting that Darden’s results are being driven by real consumer demand – especially among higher-income diners.
Darden’s results suggest that performance is being driven less by sheer scale and more by brand positioning, with concepts that offer either premium experiences or strong value perception (like LongHorn) capturing disproportionate demand. As consumer budgets remain tight, growth is likely to concentrate further in brands that clearly justify their price point – leaving middle-of-the-road concepts increasingly pressured to sharpen their value proposition or differentiate more meaningfully.
For up-to-date restaurant foot traffic, visit our free Industry Trends tool.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
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.
