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The home improvement category has faced sustained headwinds in recent years – from elevated mortgage rates to sluggish existing-home sales and a consumer base hesitant to take on major remodeling projects. But after a prolonged stretch of year-over-year (YoY) visit declines, both Home Depot and Lowe’s have returned to growth – and the foot traffic data suggests this shift is more than just a seasonal uptick.
Both home improvement leaders closed Q1 2026 with YoY visit gains – Home Depot up 1.9% and Lowe’s up 2.0% – building on the stabilization seen in Q4 2025. This improvement aligns with their latest financial results: Home Depot reported U.S. comparable sales growth of 0.3%, while Lowe’s posted a stronger 1.3%. And for both chains, the return to positive territory suggests a long-awaited recovery may finally be underway.
Monthly data also suggests that while inclement weather contributed to the segment's strong performance in January, the underlying recovery is genuine. Home improvement benefits from unusual weather events, and January's strong gains for both chains – Home Depot +2.5%, Lowe's +3.9% – were partly fueled by Winter Storm Fern, which impacted communities across more than thirty states. But the momentum carried into February, and while growth moderated in March – and for Home Depot again in April – neither brand slipped into negative territory.
That resilience is an encouraging signal for the category during the critical spring home improvement season, particularly given renewed headwinds like rising gas prices and softening consumer sentiment. Lowe's stronger performance in April 2026, supported by easier comparisons, may also reflect its greater exposure to DIY customers tackling smaller repairs and at-home projects as consumers redirect spending closer to home.
Interest rates remain elevated and the housing market sluggish – but those same forces may now be working in the category's favor, as homeowners staying put begin to tackle a growing backlog of deferred repairs and maintenance. The bigger question is whether that momentum eventually unlocks the large discretionary projects both retailers say consumers are still holding back on – especially amid continued tariff uncertainty and elevated prices at the pump.
For more data-driven retail 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.
There may be more digital entertainment than ever before, but consumers still seek out places to socialize and have fun in the physical world. And in-person entertainment venues – from stadiums to experiential viewing concepts – are attracting unique audiences that span a range of psychographic segments.
A closer look at venues in the Dallas and Los Angeles areas reveals how this diversity plays out across markets, and what it could signal for stakeholders in the business of out-of-home entertainment.
In-person entertainment includes a variety of venues and formats. In the Dallas area, legacy venues AT&T Stadium, American Airlines Center, and Globe Life Field – and eatertainment concepts, movie theaters, and “shared reality” experiences such as Cosm – are just some of the in-person entertainment options.
And in the Dallas region, AI-powered trade area analysis reveals that affluent and suburban families dominate the out-of-home entertainment scene. Across every analyzed venue and entertainment category, either Ultra Wealthy Families or Wealthy Suburban Families ranks as the top audience segment – reflecting the region's family-oriented, suburban fabric.
That said, each venue or category attracts a distinct audience mix. Cosm Dallas and the American Airlines Center over-index on Ultra Wealthy Families and draw a relatively higher share of Young Professionals than other venues. This likely reflects their premium positioning: Cosm as a novelty experience, and the AAC as an upscale urban destination where higher costs may skew attendance toward more affluent consumers.
By contrast, Wealthy Suburban Families lead at Globe Life Field (home to the Texas Rangers) and AT&T Stadium (home to the Dallas Cowboys), both of which also attract meaningful shares of blue-collar suburban audiences.
And there is clear demand for in-person entertainment among Dallas’s up-and-coming and working-class consumers. Blue Collar Suburbs and Young Urban Singles segments tend to favor eatertainment venues and movie theaters – more affordable options for going out.
Greater Los Angeles offers a similarly diverse mix of entertainment anchors: SoFi Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, and Crypto.com Arena – as well as a Cosm location, eatertainment chains, and movie theaters.
However, audience segmentation for in-person entertainment in the region shows a distinct profile compared to Dallas – shaped by SoCal’s urban density and demographic diversity. Near-Urban Diverse Families represent the largest segment across every analyzed venue and entertainment category, while Wealthy Suburban Families also account for a significant share of visitors across formats – particularly at Angel Stadium, likely due to its suburban Orange County location. The prevalence of these two segments suggests that urban, middle-class family audiences are the backbone of entertainment demand in the region while higher-income, suburban households play a strong supporting role in out-of-home entertainment consumption.
Two other patterns also jump out from the data.
First, Cosm Los Angeles and Crypto.com Arena’s audiences draw more heavily from the Educated Urbanites and Ultra Wealthy Families segments, which could point to a somewhat more premium-leaning audience mix at these destinations.
Second, the Young Urban Singles segment accounts for a relatively consistent audience share across all categories – suggesting broad-based entertainment preferences. With no single entertainment format commanding outsized engagement from this young cohort, operators in the Los Angeles market have an opportunity to further tailor experiences and potentially shape future demand among this audience.
In both Dallas and Los Angeles, the composition of out-of-home entertainment audiences reflects each market’s underlying demographics and urban structure.
And yet, certain consumer segments prefer particular entertainment venues or formats over others, and understanding who shows up is critical. Operators and advertisers that tailor their offerings to the dominant segments – whether through pricing or programming – may be better positioned to capture sustained demand and attain better ROI within their market.
For more 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.
The U.S. restaurant industry navigated a challenging first quarter in 2026, marked by macroeconomic headwinds, unfavorable weather, and cautious consumer spending. Yet, within the breakfast-first sector, a clear narrative is emerging: The era of the traditional legacy diner is fading, making way for premium, experience-driven concepts. And at the forefront of this shift is First Watch. Armed with a differentiated culinary menu, rapid but disciplined expansion, and a highly resilient consumer base, the brand is not only defying broader casual dining trends but is fundamentally rewriting the playbook for daytime dining.
Over the past few years, the breakfast-first restaurant category has bifurcated into two distinct camps: premium and experience-driven concepts capturing visit share, and legacy diner-style chains, many of which are struggling to keep up. While Q1 2026 proved to be a tighter traffic environment overall amid macroeconomic uncertainty and unfavorable weather conditions across the U.S., several experience-focused brands and resilient fan-favorites continued growing their footprints – and their audiences.
First Watch led the pack in overall visit growth as it continued expanding its store count, while average visits per location held steady – demonstrating its ability to scale without diluting demand at existing locations – while Snooze saw a 1.1% increase in visits per location.
Conversely, the steepest laggards in the segment were legacy diner chains IHOP, Denny’s, and Huddle House, all of which saw overall visits decline as they continued rightsizing their footprints, with visits per location also modestly down. These brands are increasingly tracking closer to casual dining peers like Applebee’s and Outback Steakhouse, which have faced significant headwinds in recent months.
Still, among legacy diners, Waffle House stood out as a clear outperformer in Q1 2026, likely due in part to its status as a regional institution across much of the South. And the chain’s operational resilience may have also played a role: While Winter Storm Fern pushed the so-called “Waffle House Index” into the red across much of the region in late January, the brand’s unique disaster-readiness appears to have enabled some locations to reopen quickly or avoid closure entirely.
Ultimately, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, brands that leverage a differentiated culinary menu, high-touch customer service, or fierce brand loyalty are successfully navigating the highly fragmented daypart much better than their traditional diner counterparts.
While several premium concepts have successfully carved out a lucrative niche in breakfast-first dining, First Watch has redefined the category. By blending the elevated, chef-driven culinary experience of a localized brunch spot with the operational efficiency of a national powerhouse, First Watch has created a model that sees success across multiple regions of the U.S. This unique positioning provides the brand with a massive structural advantage, fueling a physical growth trajectory that far outpaces its competitors.
Importantly, visitation data also reinforces that First Watch’s restaurant classes from 2024 and 2025 have consistently kept pace with the maturity curve of recent openings. An analysis of visit-per-location trends for First Watch locations opened in 2024 and 2025 versus the chain’s nationwide fleet reveals that the class of 2024 outpaced nationwide trends, while the 2025 cohort – even when factoring in the high volume of openings that took place in Q3 2025 – has also kept pace. These are incredibly positive indicators for a brand rapidly scaling its national footprint.
First Watch has set a long-term goal of reaching more than 2,200 restaurants across the United States – an ambitious target that would more than triple its current size. Reaching this milestone is achievable, but it will require the brand to meaningfully deepen its penetration in large coastal and Sun Belt metros, where it remains under-penetrated relative to its proven suburban strongholds. Placer.ai foot traffic data across more than 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) reveals that First Watch's unit economics are remarkably consistent, confirming the model works across multiple geographies. While newer markets like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Las Vegas currently generate lower visits per capita than the chain's core Sun Belt and Midwest suburban markets, there are significant opportunities for expansion. First Watch's breakfast-first model, strong unit-level economics, and growing brand recognition give it a credible platform to aggressively capture market share in these new territories.
Despite slowing early-spring trends, First Watch remains well-positioned to hit its 2026 same-store sales growth target of 1% to 3%. This confidence is rooted in a few key factors. First, the brand benefits from a resilient core consumer who is materially less sensitive to macroeconomic pressures than the traditional diner customer, providing a much higher floor for baseline traffic. Second, First Watch leverages reliable pricing power, as its premium positioning and highly anticipated seasonal menu rotations consistently drive check growth. Finally, the company's commitment to operational excellence through its company-owned model ensures that execution remains strong and the guest experience is uncompromised, even during slower traffic periods. By driving outsized performance from its newest units and maintaining a highly loyal customer base, the brand is not merely surviving the breakfast category's headwinds; it is actively redefining what leadership in daytime dining looks like.
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 fast-casual sector has long been defined by its sweet spot within the restaurant industry, combining the convenience of fast food and the quality of casual dining. For years, CAVA and sweetgreen have stood as the standard-bearers of the health-forward movement, expanding their store footprint while building fiercely loyal followings among affluent consumers. However, Q1 2026 foot traffic data suggests that these two brands are now on diverging trajectories. While overall visits to both chains grew – thanks in part to ongoing expansions – CAVA saw its average visits per venue grow as well, while sweetgreen's per-location traffic remained flat YoY.
The contrast between same-store visit trends is even more striking. Over the past six months, same-store visits to CAVA have been uniformly positive – and 2026 traffic was particularly strong. Meanwhile, sweetgreen has seen consistently negative same-store visit declines, with March 2026 same-store visits down 7.6% compared to CAVA's 6.8% increase. This represents a meaningful spread between two brands competing for the same premium consumer.
This divergence is the result of structural differences in menu mix and value perception. Over the past six months, CAVA has rolled out strategic menu enhancements designed to reengage with middle-income consumers who may have turned away from fast-casual options in recent months and elevate its overall value perception.
Leaning heavily into its warm, protein-forward architecture, the brand has introduced additions like premium glazed salmon as a protein option alongside new variations of its highly successful spicy chicken and steak offering. Alongside these protein upgrades, CAVA has refreshed its seasonal roasted vegetable lineups and also introduced smaller items like harissa pita chips, sides, and dips. This ensures that the menu remains dynamic enough to drive incremental visits and avoid customer fatigue while maintaining the highly customizable, assembly-line efficiency that protects its strong unit economics. The diversity of CAVA’s menu – both in terms of innovation and pricing – have helped to drive down the chain’s captured trade area median household income the past four quarters, according to data from STI: Popstats combined with Placer data.
To close this widening gap, Sweetgreen has also planned several menu changes in 2026 focused on operational simplicity, value perception, and a major new category expansion. The brand kicked off the year by highlighting its health-forward roots through a limited-time menu collaboration with Dr. Mark Hyman that utilized existing ingredients, followed by the launch of the seasonal Winter Harvest Bowl and the highly requested return of shredded cheese to the core menu. However, the most significant news is Sweetgreen's planned mid-2026 rollout of wraps.
Currently undergoing rigorous stage-gate testing in Los Angeles, the Midwest, and Manhattan, the wrap platform – featuring accessible price points starting at $10.95 and capping below $15 for in-store pickup – is designed to aggressively target consumer value sensitivity. Management noted that wraps are intended to build upon their 2025 efforts (which included increased protein portions and $12 Daily Greens) to prove to budget-conscious, quality-driven diners that Sweetgreen can deliver a compelling, high-value meal without compromising its premium brand identity.
Ultimately, the Q1 2026 data serves as a critical inflection point. CAVA is actively gaining share in a contracting category by mastering geographic diversification, daypart breadth, and perceived value. Sweetgreen has the brand identity, the affluent customer base, and the regional runway to recover, but the strategic decisions made over the next 12 to 18 months will dictate whether this current slump is a temporary setback or a permanent competitive reality.
For more data-driven dining insight, 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.
Events are foundational to New Orleans’ identity and economic model. From the Sugar Bowl to Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras, to conferences, conventions, exhibitions and meetings of all sizes, the city operates on a year-round cycle of large-scale gatherings that drive consistent visitor inflows. Over the past 12 months, 64.6% of weekend visitors to New Orleans’ downtown, including the French Quarter, Central Business District (CBD), and Arts District, were domestic tourists coming from more than 250 miles away. And as travel behavior continues to evolve post-COVID – making it more difficult to predict attendance patterns from prior-year trends – the complexity of hosting at scale requires increasingly sophisticated, data-driven operational coordination.
Perhaps no event demonstrates this model – and this need – more clearly than Mardi Gras. Running from January 6th through Mardi Gras Day, the carnival season culminates in a surge of parades and celebrations that bring major crowds downtown (French Quarter, CBD, Arts District) and all along the uptown parade route.
Crucially, many of those visitors come from within Louisiana, making the festival a powerful vehicle for strengthening ties between the city and surrounding communities: During the final 12 days of Mardi Gras 2026, 54.2% of them came from within Louisiana, compared to 23.5% during the rest of the year.
And despite an uncertain macroeconomic environment, Mardi Gras’ audience continues to expand. From the Krewe of Cleopatra on February 6 through Mardi Gras Day on February 17, out-of-market visits to downtown New Orleans (French Quarter, CBD, Arts District) increased 10% year over year, reaching their highest level since 2020.
Data also shows that Mardi Gras draws a surprisingly diverse audience. To be sure, young revelers are a big part of the story – on Mardi Gras Day, the French Quarter sees an influx of “Contemporary Households”, a young-skewing segment that includes singles, couples without children, and non-family households. The median household income of the Quarter’s trade area also declines on the big day, as students and early-career professionals crowd into the neighborhood to party.
But some of the season's more family-friendly parades – like the Krewe of Bacchus which took place this year on Sunday, February 15th – have a decidedly different vibe.
On the day of the parade, families gather early along St. Charles Avenue, setting up tents and picnic tables and sharing traditional local food ahead of the evening procession. And surrounding neighborhoods such as the Garden District experience a measurable rise in affluent family segments and median household income, highlighting Mardi Gras’ broad and diverse appeal.
Of course, managing an event of this magnitude requires coordination across agencies, stakeholders, and neighborhoods. And in a post-pandemic environment where past attendance patterns cannot always serve as reliable benchmarks, data has become a critical tool for decision-making.
Audience insights now play a central role in operational planning – identifying where visitors congregate, estimating crowd volumes, and informing preparation by law enforcement, city officials, and other city stakeholders. When large gatherings are anticipated in specific corridors or blocks, recent visitation trends provide actionable context that helps partners allocate resources efficiently and prepare accordingly.
Few cities are as synonymous with celebration as New Orleans. And by combining tradition, diversity, and data-driven operational precision, the city has built the capacity to host complex, high-volume gatherings with consistency and coordination year after year.
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With roughly one in eight Americans now using GLP-1 medications for weight loss, their rapid adoption is shaping up to be one of the most consequential behavioral shifts in recent memory – with wide-ranging implications for businesses tied to how people spend their time and money.
We analyzed the data to understand how GLP-1 usage may be influencing real-world retail and dining foot traffic. How is grocery store visitation changing? What’s happening in limited-service dining? And which other categories are gaining from a heightened focus on health and wellness – further accelerating trends that began to take hold after the pandemic?
Research from Cornell University shows that GLP-1 users reduce household grocery spending by an average of 5.3% within six months of starting a medication, with the most significant pullbacks concentrated in calorie-dense, processed categories. At the same time, a handful of health-oriented foods – including yogurt, fresh fruit, nutrition bars, and meat snacks – are seeing increased spend.
And foot traffic data points to a parallel shift in where consumers are shopping, with a growing share of grocery visits flowing toward fresh-format stores like Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Market that emphasize high-quality perishables, curated health-oriented assortments, and an elevated in-store experience. While this pivot has been underway for several years, reflecting a broader post-pandemic focus on health and wellness, its recent acceleration coincides with the rise in GLP-1 use.
From Q1 2022 to Q1 2026, these chains steadily expanded their share of overall grocery foot traffic, with momentum accelerating beginning in Q1 2024, even as some experienced per-store softness amid a challenging consumer environment. Over the same period, the median household income within fresh-format chains’ captured markets, which had remained largely stable through early 2024, began to decline. This trend suggests a broadening customer base, as households across income brackets increasingly prioritize higher-quality food and allocate a larger share of their grocery trips to fresh formats.
The reallocation of spending also extends beyond the grocery aisle. Foot traffic data points to a meaningful reordering of food-away-from-home visits over the past three years, with healthier dining segments outperforming more indulgent ones – underscoring a broader shift toward more nutritious options that GLP-1 adoption may be helping to reinforce.
Frozen yogurt chains outpaced ice cream shops in year-over-year visit growth in both 2024 and 2025, as consumers gravitated toward lighter frozen treats. Smoothie and juice chains also captured growing demand, buoyed by expanding footprints from brands like Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Smoothie King, and Playa Bowls, while fast-casual similarly pulled ahead of QSR.
Fitness participation has been on the rise since the pandemic, and the data suggests gym habits are becoming more consistent over time – a trend that GLP-1 users, who often incorporate structured exercise into their routines, may be helping to reinforce.
Between Q1 2023 and Q1 2026, the share of visitors to leading gyms stopping by at least three times in an average month rose from 44.8% to 46.8%, while the share visiting at least four times rose from 37.3% to 39.1%. For a growing segment of the population, going to the gym has become a regular part of the weekly routine – with implications for fitness brands and the broader ecosystem of health-oriented businesses competing for this newly routine-driven consumer.
As consumers deepen their focus on health and fitness, the body transformations associated with GLP-1 use are also reshaping apparel demand. Alongside a growing need for wardrobe replenishment, GLP-1 users are investing more in their appearance and rediscovering the experience of shopping for clothes.
And this trend aligns with recent foot traffic data. Even as discretionary spending continues to face headwinds in a challenging macroeconomic environment, clothing retailers are seeing consistent year-over-year visit growth, driven in large part by the off-price sector – with each year outpacing the broader discretionary retail category by a widening margin. Apparel is pulling away from the pack, likely driven in part by a consumer whose relationship with their body – and with shopping – has fundamentally changed.
The GLP-1 era is still in its early stages – but as programs like Amazon’s new GLP-1 management program expand access, these drugs are likely to continue reshaping shopping behavior in the months and years ahead. The data points to a consumer who is eating differently, moving more, and spending in ways that reflect a new set of priorities, further amplifying the focus on health and wellness that has emerged over the past several years.
For more data-driven retail and dining insights, visit Placer.ai/anchor.
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.
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.
