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Throughout 2025, Shake Shack significantly outperformed the broader fast-casual segment with strong double-digit year-over-year (YoY) visit growth.
This outsized performance was driven primarily by fleet expansion – but same-store visit data indicates the chain has successfully grown its store count without meaningfully diluting demand at existing locations.
Across most of the second half of 2025, same-store traffic remained modestly positive YoY, with a more pronounced dip occurring only in December. That decline likely reflects weather disruptions, which the company noted in a recent 2025 update had a meaningful impact on performance late in the quarter. Despite these headwinds, early Q4 earnings data shows same-shack sales up 2.1% YoY in Q4 and 2.3% for 2025 overall – underscoring Shake Shack’s ability to sustain demand even amid external pressures.
As Shake Shack enters 2026, the key question is whether the brand can continue scaling its footprint while preserving same-store performance in an increasingly competitive fast-casual landscape. With expansion driving growth and existing locations holding steady, the data suggests the company remains well positioned – but execution will be critical as macro challenges persist.
For more data driven dining insights follow 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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Sprouts closed Q4 2025 on a positive traffic note, with overall visits rising 4.0% year-over-year (YoY), although average visits per location declined slightly – suggesting that growth in its more established core markets may be beginning to normalize. As such, the company’s recent expansion into new states – including the opening of its first New York location – reflects a logical next phase of growth, as Sprouts looks beyond its traditional strongholds to unlock incremental demand in less penetrated geographies.
A closer look at visit patterns by distance suggests that Sprouts’ growth is increasingly being driven by customers traveling from farther away – a dynamic that aligns with its broader national expansion strategy. From September through January, visit gains from shoppers located more than five miles away consistently outpaced those from within a five-mile radius.
This pattern points to expanding trade areas and growing destination appeal, which is critical as the retailer enters new states and builds brand awareness beyond its traditional strongholds. As Sprouts pushes into newer geographies, its ability to draw shoppers from a wider radius reinforces the scalability of its model and supports its strategy of growing into a more nationally recognized specialty grocer.
For more data-driven grocery 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.
Consumers continue to prioritize health and wellness, putting the fitness space in a strong position even as economic headwinds and value-seeking shape discretionary spending. With 2026 now underway – and the industry’s peak sign-up season in motion – we took a closer look at Planet Fitness, one of the category’s largest players, alongside broader fitness trends to put our finger on the pulse of fitness in 2026.
Through most of 2025, Planet Fitness – and the fitness category as a whole – maintained YoY monthly visit growth. February 2025 marked the lone dip in visits for both Planet Fitness and the broader category, likely driven by inclement weather that temporarily kept some consumers out of gyms.
And Planet Fitness’ growth outpaced the wider category nearly every month, with the chain's momentum likely reflecting continued expansion – part of its multi-year growth strategy. Planet Fitness’ average visits per location were also up YoY – aligned with overall category levels – suggesting new gyms are meeting incremental demand rather than redistributing existing traffic.
In January 2026, Planet Fitness continued to experience visit growth, perhaps as New Year’s resolution-driven sign-ups helped lift traffic. Combined with the chain’s ongoing unit expansion, this dynamic could support continued gains as the brand moves further into 2026.
Planet Fitness’ recent gains may also reflect a broader shift within the fitness landscape toward low-priced membership models.
The chart below shows that since at least the start of 2024, visits to budget-friendly gym chains (monthly fees under $30) such as Planet Fitness have consistently outpaced those to mid-tier ($30-$60) and premium competitors ($60+).
But the divergence became more pronounced beginning in early 2025, when traffic growth of premium fitness chains fell off sharply while low-priced gyms continued to see visits accelerate. In a retail environment defined by heightened price sensitivity and value-seeking, lower-cost memberships appear to be resonating with consumers looking to manage discretionary spending while higher-cost concepts face mounting pressure.
Moreover, once a gym membership is paid for, price-conscious consumers could be leaning more heavily into fitness visits as a way to spend time outside the home without opening their wallets – especially as other “going out” activities have become more expensive.
As the fitness industry moves through the early months of 2026, one of the most telling indicators to watch is visitor frequency. During the peak sign-up season, this metric offers an early read on member engagement – and on whether new joiners are building habits that support longer-term retention.
In January 2026, visitor frequency to Planet Fitness held steady, even as several other analyzed gym chains saw slight declines. The dip elsewhere may be partly attributable to Storm Fern, which likely disrupted routines and temporarily curtailed gym visits across affected regions. Against that backdrop, Planet Fitness’ stable frequency stands out as a relative bright spot.
Still, with resolution-driven sign-ups typically extending through much of Q1, it may be too early to draw firm conclusions about full-year performance. As weather-related effects fade and new members settle into routines, frequency trends over the coming months should offer clearer insight into how the category – and Planet Fitness in particular – is positioned for the rest of 2026.
Planet Fitness’ ability to grow visits, sustain per-location demand, and hold visitor frequency steady early in 2026 suggests the brand is benefiting from both internal strategy and favorable category-level tailwinds. While it remains early in the year, the underlying trends indicate that low-cost fitness models, and Planet Fitness in particular, are well-positioned as consumers prioritize cost-effective ways to stay active.
Which gyms will grow 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.
Super Bowl LX kicked off on Sunday, February 8th at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, but celebrations across the Bay Area – from fan festivals and concerts to immersive cultural activations – began well before game day.
An AI-powered analysis of two marquee Super Bowl week events – the Ferry Building Projection Show and Chris Stapleton’s concert at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – highlights the role pre-game attractions played in extending the championship into a multi-day driver of regional foot traffic.
Between February 5th and 7th – the three nights leading up to the Super Bowl – San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building became the canvas for a large-scale projection show celebrating 60 years of Super Bowl history. Comparing evening visits during the installation to the nightly average since January 1st, 2025 highlights the magnitude of the crowds drawn downtown for the spectacle.
The Ferry Building is no stranger to major surges in visitation tied to visual events. On July 4th, 2025, visits to the area were 217.5% above the daily average as fireworks lit up the Bay, while New Year’s Eve drove an even larger spike of 336.9%. Other recent activations – including a drone light show on October 8th and the multi-day “Let’s Glow SF” installation from December 5th to 14th – also generated noticeable visit increases.
But, the pre-Super Bowl Projection Show stood apart. Evening visits to the Ferry Building spiked by 141.6% on the first night of the installation and by 265.7% on the second. On the eve of the Super Bowl, February 7th, visits surged 479.1% above the nightly average, surpassing every other evening visit peak observed over the previous twelve months. This shows that the event was not only visually compelling, but also exceptionally effective at drawing crowds into the city core during Super Bowl week.
While the Ferry Building Projection Show was a major draw in its own right, many attendees treated it as just one stop on a broader evening itinerary.
Location intelligence shows that 18.2% of visitors to the projection show also made an evening visit to Moscone Center, home of the Super Bowl LX Experience between February 3rd and 7th. Other popular destinations included Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, and the Fillmore Shopping District – all well-established tourist and retail corridors.
Regional indoor shopping centers also benefited from an influx of visitors. Serramonte Center and Stonestown Galleria ranked among the more common evening stops for projection show attendees, a pattern that could suggest travelers sought warm, indoor environments for dining and shopping after spending time along the waterfront.
Taken together, the data indicates that Super Bowl-themed activations drove visit spikes while generating spillover benefits for a diverse mix of retail, dining, and entertainment destinations across the Bay Area.
Among Super Bowl week’s most anticipated and in-demand ticketed events was Chris Stapleton’s concert at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on February 7th.
With limited ticket availability and a premium price-tag, the concert drew a notably affluent audience. On the day of the show, households classified as “Ultra Wealthy Families” accounted for 45.5% of the venue’s captured market, compared to 23.5% across the prior twelve months. Similarly, households earning more than $175K represented 46.5% of the venue’s captured market on concert day, well above the 34.9% average observed over the previous year. These shifts demonstrate the robust demand for exclusive Super Bowl week experiences among higher-income music fans.
But affluence alone only tells part of the story. Using location intelligence to examine visitor journeys offers clearer insight into the concert’s audience – whether it skewed local or was bolstered by visiting Super Bowl guests.
Trade area analysis reveals that 36.6% of visitors to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on the day of the show traveled between 10 and 30 miles – a higher share than usual for the venue, indicating stronger representation from the extended Bay Area.
At the same time, the event also drew a meaningful influx of long-distance travelers. Visitors coming from more than 250 miles away accounted for 12.9% of concertgoers on February 7th, up from 8.0% over the previous twelve months. This increase suggests that many Super Bowl tourists incorporated the high-profile live show into their itineraries, reinforcing the role of major concerts as drivers of valuable traffic during destination sporting events.
For civic leaders, major activations like these highlight how strategic programming can amplify the regional impact of tentpole sporting events – generating surges in visitation and meaningful spillover to retail corridors, entertainment districts, and shopping centers.
For more data-driven civic 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.
Wingstop closed out Q4 2025 with soft same-store traffic but a clearly defined strategic trajectory. While same-store visits remained under pressure, performance in Dallas – the brand’s most mature market – suggests that improvements in operational efficiency could play a central role in unlocking Wingstop’s next phase of growth.
Wingstop continued to expand its physical footprint in Q4 2025, driving total chain-wide traffic up 1.0% year over year (YoY) for the quarter and 4.5% for 2025 as a whole. At the same time, same-store traffic remained soft, extending a pattern that persisted throughout the second half of the year.
Some of that pressure reflects a challenging baseline comparison. Wingstop is lapping an unusually strong 2024, when domestic same-store sales surged nearly 20% YoY – setting a high bar for subsequent growth. The decline in same-store visits also aligns with the brand’s deliberate shift toward off-premise occasions: By Q3 2025, 72.8% of Wingstop’s sales were digital, underscoring the brand’s evolution into a tech-led, delivery-forward concept.
Still, looking more closely at Wingstop’s Dallas, TX market – home to the majority of its company-owned restaurants – offers a compelling signal for how the brand can reverse recent traffic trends. In 2025 earnings calls, management repeatedly pointed to Dallas as a top performer, attributing its resilience to the early integration of the chain’s AI-powered Smart Kitchen platform.
Piloted in Dallas before its nationwide rollout in late 2025, the AI-powered system is designed to optimize throughput and accuracy to deliver a more consistent pickup experience. And location analytics appear to support management’s view: In Q4 2025, 44.5% of Wingstop visits in the Dallas DMA lasted under ten minutes, compared to 40.8% nationwide.
Comparing YoY performance for shorter and longer visits to Wingstop – both in Dallas and nationwide – further highlights the growing importance of speed of service. In Q4 2025, visits lasting under ten minutes increased YoY on a per-location basis nationwide, with even stronger gains in Dallas, while longer visits continued to lag.
Crucially, although Dallas was not immune to the broader pressures weighing on longer visits, its YoY decline was notably less severe than the national trend. This divergence suggests that, beyond reducing wait times, the faster and more accurate service enabled by the Smart Kitchen platform may be contributing to a stronger overall visitor experience.
Location analytics suggest that operational improvements and faster service are beginning to translate into stronger traffic for Wingstop. And with the chain’s new loyalty platform set to launch nationwide later this year the brand may be poised for renewed same-store momentum.
For more data-driven dining insights, follow 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.
The return to office was put to the test last month as a slew of new RTO mandates took effect – coinciding with the late-January arrival of Winter Storm Fern. With policies pulling in one direction and weather disruptions pulling in the other, how were offices impacted on the ground?
January 2026 delivered a reminder that return-to-office progress is anything but linear – but it is still gaining ground. Despite Winter Storm Fern disrupting travel and commutes across large parts of the country toward the end of the month, office attendance continued its gradual recovery. Visits to the Nationwide Office Index were 38.3% below January 2019 levels, a modest improvement from January 2025, when a Polar Vortex similarly inhibited commutes.
And while total monthly visits came in slightly below January 2024 levels, adjusting for the number of working days reveals a more encouraging picture. On a per-working-day basis, January 2026 was the busiest in-office January since COVID – no small feat in a month when ice and snow covered large swaths of the contiguous U.S. for several days. The fact that offices were generally fuller than in prior Januaries, even amid widespread disruptions, points to a robust underlying RTO trajectory.
Fern’s influence becomes clearer, however, when zooming in on individual metros. Cities that avoided the worst of the storm generally posted stronger year-over-year (YoY) gains, while heavily impacted markets saw flatter or negative results. Miami, for example, continued to record YoY increases, while New York City – hit hard by Fern – saw visits edge down 0.3% YoY.
Last year’s winter conditions also played a meaningful role in YoY comparisons. Both Dallas and Houston were affected by Fern this January, though Dallas bore the brunt of the storm, with snow, ice, travel disruptions, and flight cancellations contributing to a 6.7% YoY drop in office visits. Houston, by contrast, experienced more limited disruption in January 2026 and posted a YoY increase – in part because it was lapping the January 2025 Gulf Coast Blizzard, which saw rare snow accumulations effectively shut the city down. In other words, Houston’s biggest weather-related disruption occurred last winter, while Dallas faced a more acute shock this year.
Washington, D.C.’s 3.2% YoY uptick and Atlanta’s 9.1% gain similarly reflect comparisons to January 2025, when both markets were hampered by extreme winter weather. But these rebounds also point to underlying recovery momentum – especially for Atlanta, which, despite being impacted by Fern, ranked third among the analyzed cities for post-pandemic office recovery.
Meanwhile, West Coast markets that were largely spared severe winter conditions posted the strongest year-over-year gains. Los Angeles and San Francisco led the pack, with YoY increases of 15.6% and 10.9%, respectively.
In today’s hybrid workplace, weather disruptions have become an increasingly accepted reason to skip the commute and work from home. And as a result, January – one of the most weather-prone months of the year – has emerged as a softer period for office attendance, regardless of broader RTO momentum.
Still, when adjusting for the number of working days, office visits this January marked a meaningful improvement over last year – further evidence that return-to-office progress continues to move steadily forward.
For more data-driven office recovery analyses, 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.
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.
The past few years have provided the tourism sector with a multitude of headwinds, from pandemic-induced lockdowns to persistent inflation and a rise in extreme weather events. But despite these challenges, people are more excited than ever to travel – more than half of respondents to a recent survey are planning on increasing their travel budgets in the coming months.
And while revenge travel to overseas destinations is still very much alive and well, the often high costs associated with traveling abroad are shaping the way people choose to travel. Domestic travel and tourism are seeing significant growth as more affordable alternatives.
This white paper takes a closer look at two of the most popular domestic tourism destinations in the country – New York City and Los Angeles. Over the past year, both cities have continued to be leading tourism hotspots, offering a wealth of attractions for visitors. What does tourism to these two cities look like in 2024, and what has changed since before the pandemic? How have inflation and rising airfare prices affected the demographics and psychographics of visitors to these major hubs?
Analyzing the distribution of domestic tourists across CBSAs nationwide from May 2023 to April 2024 reveals New York and Los Angeles to be two of the nation’s most popular destinations. (Tourists include overnight visitors staying in a given CBSA for up to 31 days).
The New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro area drew the largest share of domestic tourists of any CBSA during the analyzed period (2.7%), followed closely by the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA CBSA (2.5%). Other domestic tourism hotspots included Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL (tied for second place with 2.5% of visitors), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (1.9%), Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV (1.8%), Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL (1.8%), and Chicago-Naperville, Elgin, IL-IN-WI (1.6%).
The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. Empire City. Whatever it’s called, New York City remains one of the most well-known tourist destinations in the world. And for many Americans, New York is the perfect place for an extended weekend getaway – or for a multi-day excursion to see the sights.
But where do these NYC-bound vacationers come from? Diving into the data on the origin of visitors making medium-length trips to New York City (three to seven nights) reveals that increasingly, these domestic tourists are coming from nearby metro areas.
Between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024, for example, the number of tourists visiting New York City from the Philadelphia metro area increased by 19.2%.
The number of tourists coming from the Boston and Washington, D.C metro areas, and from the New York CBSA itself (New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA) also increased over the same period.
Meanwhile, further-away CBSAs like San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA, and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL fed fewer tourists to NYC in 2023-2024 than they did pre-pandemic. It seems that residents of these more distant metro areas are opting for vacation destinations closer to home to avoid the high costs of air travel.
Diving even deeper into the characteristics of visitors taking medium-length trips to New York City reveals another demographic shift: Tourists staying between three and seven nights in the Big Apple are skewing younger.
Between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024, the share of visitors to New York City from areas with median ages under 30 grew from 2.1% to 4.5%. Meanwhile, the share of visitors from areas with median ages between 31 and 40 increased from 34.3% to 37.7%.
The impact of this trend is already being felt in the Big Apple, with The Broadway League reporting that the average age of audiences to its shows during the 2022- 2023 season was the youngest it had been in 20 seasons.
The shift towards younger tourists can also be seen when examining the psychographic makeup of visitors to popular attractions in New York City. Analyzing the captured markets of major NYC landmarks with data from Spatial.ai’s PersonaLive dataset reveals an increase in households belonging to the “Educated Urbanites” segment between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024.
These well-educated, young singles are increasingly visiting iconic NYC venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The American Museum of Natural History, and the Statue of Liberty. This shift highlights the growing popularity of these attractions among young, educated singles, reflecting a broader trend of increased domestic tourism among this demographic.
New York City’s tourism sector is adapting to meet the changing needs of travelers, fueled increasingly by younger visitors who may be unable to take a costly international vacation. How have travel patterns to Los Angeles changed in response to increasing travel costs?
While New York City is the East Coast’s tourism hotspot, Los Angeles takes center stage on the West Coast. And as overseas travel has become increasingly out of reach for Americans with less discretionary income, the share of domestic tourists originating from areas with lower HHIs has risen.
Before the pandemic, 57.6% of visitors to LA came from affluent areas with median household incomes (HHIs) of over $90K/year. But by 2023-2024, this share decreased to 50.7%. Over the same period, the share of visitors from areas with median HHIs between $41K and $60K increased from 9.7% to 12.5%, while the share of visitors from areas with HHIs between $61K and $90K rose from 32.1% to 35.8%.
Diving into the psychographic makeup of visitors to popular Los Angeles attractions – Universal Studios Hollywood, Disneyland California, the Santa Monica Pier, and Griffith Observatory – also reflects the above-mentioned shift in HHI. The captured markets of these attractions had higher shares of middle-income households belonging to the “Family Union” psychographic segment in 2023-2024 than in 2018-2019.
Experian: Mosaic defines this segment as “middle income, middle-aged families living in homes supported by solid blue-collar occupations.” Pre-pandemic, 16.0% of visitors to Universal Studios Hollywood came from trade areas with high shares of “Family Union” households. This number jumped to 18.8% over the past year. A similar trend occurred at Disneyland, Santa Monica Pier, and Griffith Observatory.
And like in New York City, growing numbers of visitors to Los Angeles appear to be coming from nearby areas. Between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024, the share of in-state visitors to major Los Angeles attractions increased substantially – as people likely sought to cut costs by keeping things local.
Pre-pandemic, for example, 68.9% of visitors to Universal Studios Hollywood came from within California – a share that increased to 72.0% over the past year. Similarly, 59.7% of Griffith Observatory visitors in 2018-2019 came from within the state – and by 2023-2024, that number grew to 64.7%.
Even when times are tight, people love to travel – and New York and Los Angeles are two of their favorite destinations. With prices for airfare, hotels, and dining out increasing across the board, younger and more price-conscious households are adapting, choosing to visit nearby cities and enjoy attractions closer to home. And as the tourism industry continues its recovery, understanding emerging visitation trends can help stakeholders meet travelers where they are.
The positive retail momentum observed in Q1 2024 continued into Q2 – as stabilizing prices and a strong job market fostered cautious optimism among consumers. Year-over-year (YoY) retail foot traffic remained elevated throughout the quarter, with June in particular seeing significant weekly visit boosts ranging from 4.7% to 8.5%.
The robustness of the retail sector in Q2 was also highlighted by positive visit growth during the quarter’s special calendar occasions, including Mother’s Day (the week of May 6th) and Memorial Day (the week of May 27th). And though consumer spending may moderate as the year wears on, retail’s strong Q2 showing offers plenty of room for optimism ahead of back-to-school sales and other summer milestones.
On a quarterly basis, overall retail visits rose 4.2% in Q2. And diving into specific categories shows that value continued to reign supreme, with discount and dollar stores seeing the most robust YoY visit growth (11.2%) of any analyzed category.
Other essential goods purveyors, such as grocery store chains (7.6%) and superstores (4.6%), also outperformed the overall retail baseline. And fitness – a category deemed essential by many health-conscious consumers – outpaced overall retail with a substantial 6.0% YoY foot traffic increase.
The decidedly more discretionary home improvement industry performed less well than overall retail in Q2 – but in another sign of consumer resilience, it too experienced a YoY visit uptick. And overall restaurant foot traffic increased 2.6% YoY.
Discount and dollar stores enjoyed a strong Q2 2024, maintaining YoY visit growth above 10.0% for six out of the quarter’s 13 weeks. Only during the week of April 1st did the category see a temporary decline, likely the result of an Easter calendar shift. (The week of April 1st 2024 is being compared to the week of April 3rd, 2023, which included the run-up to Easter)
Some of this growth can be attributed to the continued expansion of segment leaders like Dollar General. But the category has also been bolstered by the emphasis consumers continue to place on value in the face of still-high prices and economic uncertainty.
Dollar General, which has been expanding both its store count and its grocery offerings, saw YoY visits increase between 9.1% and 15.9% throughout the quarter. Affordable-indulgence-oriented Five Below, which has also been adding locations at a brisk clip, saw YoY visits increase between 4.9% and 18.8%.
And though Dollar Tree has taken steps to rightsize its Family Dollar brand, the company’s eponymous banner – which caters to middle-income consumers in suburban areas – continued to grow both its store count and its visits in Q2.
Grocery store chains also performed well in Q2 2024 – experiencing strongly positive foot traffic growth throughout the quarter. Though the sector continues to face its share of challenges, stabilizing food-at-home prices and improvements in employee retention and supply chain management have helped propel the industry forward.
Diving into the performance of specific chains shows that within the grocery segment, too, price was paramount in Q2 2024 – with limited-assortment value grocery stores like Aldi and Trader Joe’s leading the way.
Traditional chains H-E-B and Food Lion (owned by Ahold Delhaize) – both of which are known for relatively low prices – outperformed the wider grocery sector with respective YoY foot traffic boosts of 11.4% and 8.7%. But ShopRite, Safeway (owned by Albertsons), Kroger, and Albertsons also drew more visits in Q2 2024 than in the equivalent period of last year.
Fitness has proven to be relatively inflation-proof in recent years – thriving even in the face of reduced discretionary spending and consumer cutbacks. Indeed, rising prices may have actually helped boost gym attendance, as people sought to squeeze the most value out of their monthly fees and replace pricy outings with already-paid-for gym excursions.
And despite lapping a remarkably strong 2023, visits to gyms nationwide remained elevated YoY in Q2 2024.
Diving into the data for some of the nation’s leading gyms shows that today’s fitness market has plenty of room at the top. Planet Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Life Time Fitness, Orangetheory Fitness, and LA Fitness all experienced YoY visit growth in Q2 2024 – reflecting consumers’ enduring interest in all things wellness-related.
But it was EōS Fitness and Crunch Fitness – two value gyms that have been pursuing aggressive expansion strategies – that really hit it out of the park, with respective YoY foot traffic increases of 23.4% and 21.4%.
The week of April 1st saw a decline in YoY visits to superstores – likely attributable to the Easter calendar shift noted above. But the category quickly rallied, and with back-to-school shopping and major superstore sales events coming up this July, the category appears poised to enjoy continued success throughout the summer.
Within the superstore category, wholesale clubs continued to stand out – with Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club enjoying YoY foot traffic growth ranging from 12.0% to 7.4%. But Target and Walmart also impressed with 4.6% and 4.0% YoY visit increases.
Inflation, elevated interest rates, and a sluggish real estate market have created a perfect storm for the home improvement industry, with spending on renovations in decline. The accelerated return to office has likely also taken its toll on the category, as people spend more time outside the home and have less availability to immerse themselves in DIY projects.
But despite these challenges, weekly YoY foot traffic to home improvement and furnishing chains remained elevated throughout much of the Q2 – with June and April seeing mostly positive YoY visit growth, and May hovering just below 2023 levels. This (modest) visit growth may be driven by consumers loading up on supplies for necessary home repairs, or by shoppers seeking materials for smaller projects. And given the importance of Q2 for the home improvement sector, this largely positive snapshot may offer some promise of good things to come.
Some chains within the home improvement category continued to perform especially well in Q2 2024 – with rapidly expanding, budget-oriented Harbor Freight Tools leading the pack. But Ace Hardware, Menards, The Home Depot, and Lowe’s also saw foot traffic increases in Q2, showcasing the category’s resilience in the face of headwinds.
Restaurants – including full-service restaurants (FSR), quick-service restaurants (QSR), fast-casual chains, and coffee chains – lagged behind grocery stores and other essential goods retailers in Q2 2024, as price-sensitive consumers prioritized needs over wants and ate at home more often.
Still, YoY restaurant foot traffic remained up throughout most of the quarter. And impressively, the sector saw a YoY visit uptick during the week of Mother’s Day (the week of May 6th, 2024, compared to the week of May 8th, 2023) – an important milestone for FSR.
The restaurant industry’s YoY visit growth was felt across segments – though fast-casual and coffee chains experienced the biggest visit boosts. Like in Q1 2024, fast-casual restaurants hit the sweet spot between indulgence and affordability, outpacing QSR in the wake of fast food price hikes. And building on the positive YoY trendline that began to emerge last quarter, full-service restaurants finished Q2 2024 with a 1.4% YoY visit uptick.
Chain expansion was the name of the restaurant game in Q2 2024, with several chains that have been growing their footprints outperforming segment averages – including CAVA, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Ziggi’s Coffee, California-based Philz Coffee, Raising Cane’s, Whataburger, and First Watch. Chili’s Grill and Bar also outpaced the full-service category average, aided by the revamping of its “3 for Me” menu.
Retailers and restaurants in Q2 2024 continued to face plenty of challenges, from inflation to rising labor costs and volatile consumer confidence. But foot traffic trends across industries – including both essential goods purveyors like grocery stores and more discretionary categories like home improvement and restaurants – suggest plenty of room for cautious optimism as 2024 wears on.
