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The 2026 FIFA World Cup is already reshaping foot traffic across the country - filling stadiums, lifting restaurant traffic near host venues, and drawing fans to watch parties and festivals. But one of the tournament's clearest retail beneficiaries may be its most visible sponsor: adidas, supplier of the official Trionda match ball and kit provider to national teams from Mexico to Argentina.
Heading into the spring, adidas stores were fighting an uphill battle - weekly visits ran below 2025 levels for most of April, bottoming out at -20.5% YoY the week of April 13th. Traffic gradually stabilized through May, and then the World Cup arrived.
During the week of June 8th – which included the tournament’s June 11th kickoff and the USMNT’s 4-1 opening win over Paraguay at SoFi Stadium – adidas store visits climbed 14.3% YoY. Momentum then accelerated the following week, the first full week of group-stage play, when the USMNT defeated Australia in Seattle and adidas visits surged 44.7% above the same week last year.
Father’s Day, which fell on June 21st this year, may have contributed to that jump, since the comparison week in 2025 began the day after Father’s Day. But the magnitude of the spike, along with its staying power in subsequent weeks, suggests that tournament-driven excitement was the main driver.
Big temporary visit spikes often fade fast – but this one hasn’t. During the weeks of June 22nd and June 29th, visits remained elevated more than 20% YoY – suggesting that the tournament is driving a sustained shift in demand, not just a burst of opening-week excitement.
The World Cup's foot traffic ripple effects extend well beyond the stadiums - into dining, retail, and beyond. And while global sponsorships are usually measured in impressions, location intelligence makes them measurable in visits. For adidas, supplying the match ball and outfitting some of the tournament's biggest teams moved fans into stores, week after week. With knockout rounds running through the July 19th final, the three stripes may not be done running up the score.
For more data-driven retail insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Coffee shops remain one of dining’s most dependable bright spots, as consumers continue to splurge on affordable indulgences even while cutting back on pricier outings. In H1 2026, coffee visits were up 4.1% year over year (YoY), even as overall dining traffic fell 0.4%. But in some metros, the caffeine rush was running much stronger.
This month's Placer 5 highlights the nation’s top five major coffee markets – metro areas that logged upwards of 10 million coffee shop visits in H1 2026, where coffee shops saw the most YoY visit growth. Each one is thriving for its own reasons, and together they show that there are many ways to win at coffee.
For many of these metros, coffee visit growth was driven at least in part by fleet expansion. But in all five markets, average visits per coffee shop also rose YoY, suggesting that existing venues are also drawing bigger crowds.
Still, each metro brews its own story.
In inland California’s Riverside and Bakersfield, the surges were powered primarily by Starbucks and Dutch Bros, with Bakersfield – the only analyzed metro without an increase in major coffee chain locations in H1 – seeing traffic at existing coffee shops rise significantly even as the overall store count edged down.
In Indianapolis and Kansas City, meanwhile, coffee visits were propelled in part by the drive-thru coffee wave sweeping the middle of the country – a format with so much momentum that Technomic’s 2026 America’s Favorite Chains ranking featured three drive-thru coffee brands in its top 10 for the first time ever. Alongside new Dutch Bros locations, fast-growing 7 Brew also expanded its footprint in both metros. Their car-friendly layouts make Indianapolis and Kansas City natural magnets for the format – and with per-location visits still climbing, the new stands appear to be filling up as fast as they open.
Orlando, for its part, appears to be riding a more general demand wave. The metro's population grew 1.29% between July 2024 and July 2025 – well ahead of the 0.52% national average – while record tourist visits kept vacation mornings busy. More residents and more visitors translate directly into more lattes – and several major chains added stores to keep pace.
Tourism and population growth in Orlando, a drive-thru boom in the heartland, and steady strength in inland California – the standout coffee metros of 2026 each found their own path to growth. And it's worth noting that all five sit far from Stars Hollow of Gilmore Girls’ fame: the Northeast may claim the diner-counter coffee mystique, but the caffeine craze is a truly national affair.
The result is a coffee category that remains highly adaptable. Whether fueled by convenience, expansion, tourism, or loyal daily routines, America's coffee shop segment continues to find new ways to keep visits percolating.
Over the past two decades, Boston's Seaport has undergone a remarkable transformation – evolving from an underutilized stretch of waterfront into one of the city's most vibrant mixed-use destinations. The story of Seaport highlights a critical lesson in real estate development: What you build matters, but creating reasons for people to visit, linger, and return matters just as much.
Using AI-powered location intelligence, we explored Seaport's recent growth and the role of community programming, experiential retail, and other placemaking initiatives in making it one of Boston's premier retail corridors.
Experiences and community have been central to Boston Seaport’s historic revitalization. In the late 2010s, mixed-use development and entertainment anchors helped to establish Seaport as a leisure-time destination, while initiatives like Snowport, Seaport Sweat, and The Current emphasized neighborhood programming and experiential concepts. During this period, visitation consistently peaked in the summer, which remained the corridor’s primary traffic driver.
And although visits to the corridor fell sharply at the onset of the pandemic, Seaport continued to invest in public spaces. When social gatherings resumed, new mixed-use projects like Harbor Way, The Superette, and The Paseo helped to reinforce Seaport as an experience-driven destination and fuel the neighborhood’s foot traffic rebound.
Since then, expanded seasonal programming has diversified visitation beyond the summer months. The launch of The Holiday Market in 2021 complemented the already popular Snowport activation, creating a new seasonal traffic peak. Since its introduction, December has consistently generated a significant surge in visitation – a pattern that was largely absent before the pandemic.
Still, summer remains Seaport’s peak season, with the fair-weather appeal of its outdoor spaces becoming the backdrop for community and engagement. Seaport’s summer programming continues to expand, and with it, foot traffic to the corridor, which has risen nearly every year since COVID, exceeding pre-pandemic levels in the summer of 2025 and again in May and June 2026. And with new social venues, America 250 events, and World Cup action taking place in Boston and within the Seaport corridor, the stage is set for another robust summer season.
While some of Seaport's visitation growth can be attributed to the neighborhood's continued real estate development, a closer look at visitor dwell times provides further evidence that foot traffic is being driven by deeper engagement, not just new construction.
Extended visits consistently account for a significant share of Seaport’s overall traffic. Between January and June 2026, out-of-market visits lasting more than 150 minutes (excluding local employees) represented 39.7% of total visits to the corridor, up from 38.4% in 2025. And over the past six months, visits exceeding 150 minutes consistently outperformed overall visits year-over-year (YoY) – suggesting that visitors are becoming more engaged with the area's retail, dining, and public spaces.
Extended visits and increasing foot traffic aren't the only indicators of Seaport's upward trajectory. Audience segmentation suggests that the corridor’s experiential recreation and retail are helping to attract an affluent consumer base – a valuable cohort in today's bifurcated economic environment.
Location intelligence combined with the STI: PopStats dataset reveals that the Seaport retail corridor attracts a relatively affluent audience, with a trade area median household income (HHI) of $131.3K over the past six months, compared to $124.8K for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH CBSA overall. But concepts such as Ballers – a new padel and pickleball venue with social events – and The Current, a seasonal retail pop-up along Seaport's main pedestrian thoroughfare, draw even more affluent audiences. The captured market median HHIs for these venues were $143.6K and $144.1K, respectively.
Further analysis using the Spatial.ai: PersonaLive dataset suggests that Ballers and The Current attract distinct mixes of affluent consumers. The Current attracts a substantially larger share of Ultra Wealthy Families (24.5%) than either Ballers (17.5%) or the Seaport retail corridor overall (19.4%). Meanwhile, Ballers over-indexes for Educated Urbanites – affluent young professionals living in dense urban areas – relative to both The Current and the broader corridor. This suggests that Seaport's growing mix of experiential concepts is deepening the corridor's appeal across multiple affluent audience segments.
For retail corridors, creating reasons to visit is just as important as creating places to shop.
Boston's Seaport illustrates how placemaking extends beyond development itself. While new retail, dining, and mixed-use projects have reshaped the neighborhood, the data suggests that ongoing investments in programming, public spaces, and experiential concepts have helped transform the corridor into a destination for community engagement.
As Seaport prepares for another busy summer, pairing physical development with curated experiences is likely to sustain the corridor's momentum.
For more insights, visit Placer.ai/anchor.
Spoiler Alert – one of the key pieces of our look back on Q3 will be a focus on those who benefitted from World Cup visitation.
But soccer’s quadrennial – yup, it’s a word, I looked it up – kicked off in June, and brands like Chipotle got into the action. The chain's Buy One Get One (BOGO) free campaign on June 11th drove the highest visit count for the entire year, surpassing a former BOGO-driven peak in March. The lesson? Value works, but value plus a buzzy reason to visit works even better.
It does feel like every time the wider home improvement sector is poised to have a breakout period, something happens to dampen the potential. In 2025, just as visits were starting to rise, momentum stalled as consumers faced with the threat of tariffs looked to offset the risk of rising prices by deferring certain purchases. And it happened in the middle of the segment’s seasonal peak.
In 2026, it was rising gas prices – again during the segment’s most highly trafficked period. Year-over-year visits for the sector went from up 3.6% on average for January and February, to being up just 0.4% on average for March, April and May year over year. The same was seen for the sector’s leaders with Home Depot going from average monthly visit increases of 2.7% in January and February to a decline of 0.2% in March and May, and Lowe’s going from 3.0% to up just 0.7% during those same periods.
The takeaway? The home improvement sector – and leaders Home Depot and Lowe’s – are probably in a better position than they are showing. A little bit of luck – or just the removal of bad timing – seems to be all that stands in the way of significant and ongoing visit growth. Just another reason why the segment and these chains in particular are high on our watch list for the second half of 2026.
Many pontificated about why the rising retail leader would make a move on Everlane, pointing to the lift received from tapping into a socially conscious retail brand. And while this is very likely a piece of the puzzle, there are elements that should not be overlooked.
Not only does Everlane offer the positive brand lift associated with a player committed to certain values, it also offers more access to key markets and audiences – in this case young, high earning urban shoppers and wealthy families, among others. Shein – via a range of pop up experiments – has already displayed an understanding of the value of physical spaces and the benefits that come from offline touchpoints, especially with the aim of user acquisition. With Everlane, they leverage these touchpoints to bring customers – existing and potential – into an even larger world of apparel options.
And the user acquisition piece is key. The use of spaces as an entry point into the wider Shein ecosystem will offer massive long term potential.
One of the more fascinating data points of the year thus far was the incredible correlation between rising gas prices and visits to membership clubs – Costco, BJ’s Wholesale, Sam’s Club – gas locations.
The takeaway here is absolutely clear – when prices rise these locations are trusted by customers to provide the best possible value. But the really important takeaway is that these ‘shorter term’ swings have significant and long term impacts for these retailers. During the pandemic we saw that visits to locations like these don’t just provide a quick win, they indicate a likelihood that these visitors will now be making membership club locations a larger and ongoing part of their retail patterns.
Providing value amid surging gas prices is just another example of an opportunity these leaders are taking to create a win for customers – something they have proven uniquely capable of turning into long term loyalty.
Super Mario launched at the very tail end of Q1, but it was the first signal of the huge potential movie theatre traffic would have in 2026. Obviously, the peak summer months of July and August will carry a huge amount of weight in this conversation, but the spikes driven by Toy Story 5 and others in Q2 were the necessary ‘next signal’ that the run of blockbusters scheduled for this year could drive big visits.
The other area to track here is who else benefits. We’ve talked a lot about limited time offers - especially those tied to movie releases or other anchors that create urgency. And with so many movies coming, and so many of these having significant retail and dining tie-ins, the wider impact could be even larger.
Every year we gather in Las Vegas for a pulse check on the state of retail real estate. And 2026 continued a trend of clear and significant confidence that the positioning of physical stores and dining locations is in a very strong place.
The big question is now less about how rosy or bleak the segment’s future is, but which players will take advantage of the current state of strength to future proof their portfolios by taking calculated risks on how to up level shopping centers and the retail spaces within them.
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The return-to-office (RTO) wars are grinding on. Mandates are expanding across the private and public sectors, and employers are getting more serious about enforcement. But even as the share of Fortune 100 companies requiring full-time in-person work has climbed to 55%, employees continue to push back in ways both visible and subtle – from protests and petitions to "hushed hybrid" workarounds and coffee badging – quiet quitting's caffeinated cousin.
So where does actual attendance stand? We dove into the data to find out.
Nationwide office visits in June 2026 jumped 8.5% year over year (YoY) and stood 21.0% below June 2019 levels. But June 2026 also came with a calendar assist: The month had 21 working days, compared to 20 in both June 2025 and June 2019. And Juneteenth fell on a Friday this year, rather than a Thursday as in 2025 – meaning the holiday landed on what is typically the week’s quietest office day, likely blunting its drag on attendance.
On a per-working-day basis, office visits rose a more modest 3.3% YoY, continuing the slow but stubborn climb the index has traced for the past several months. Still, even when normalizing for business days, June emerged as the single busiest in-office month since COVID began in March 2020.
Nationwide Office Index, June 2026
| Total Visits | Avg. Visits Per Working Day |
|---|---|
|
Compared to June 2019
Pre-pandemic
▼21.0%
|
Compared to June 2019
Pre-pandemic
▼24.8%
|
|
Compared to June 2025
Year over year
▲8.5%
|
Compared to June 2025
Year over year
▲3.3%
|
Click a key in the legend below to show or hide either line.
Market-level data shows that many analyzed metros – including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami – reached new post-pandemic office attendance highs in June after adjusting for the number of working days. But Miami was the clear June RTO winner, with office visits surpassing 2019 levels. Critically, this is still an estimation, and it remains to be seen how Miami’s recovery will continue to play out over the long term. Still, the obvious takeaway is that the Florida hub – which has also seen the lowest vacancy rate of any major U.S. office market in recent months – is in an especially strong position as the RTO continues.
Every major market also posted YoY visit growth, with Los Angeles leading the pack. The market was lapping a soft June 2025, when local protests disrupted commuting routines – though L.A.’s solid showing in recent months suggests the jump reflects more than an easy comparison. San Francisco ranked second, continuing the momentum that made it the YoY growth leader in May. And Chicago also logged a substantial YoY gain, moving into the middle of the post-pandemic recovery pack as its downtown office market recorded its first vacancy decline in fifteen quarters in Q2 2026.
With California's four-day mandate for state workers taking effect July 1, and full-time office requirements set to roll out this September at employers including Fidelity and TikTok, the second half of 2026 may bring fresh RTO tailwinds. Will these policies push the recovery even further ahead? And will Miami's move above pre-COVID levels hold over time? Time will tell.
For more data-driven RTO insights, visit Placer.ai/anchor.
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From Michigan Avenue to Main Street, retail corridors have long served as a barometer of urban vitality – and their post-pandemic trajectory has become one of the most closely watched storylines in retail real estate. We dove into the data to see how these districts are faring in 2026, and what AI-powered location analytics reveal about when, and why, people are showing up.
After several years of gradual improvement, the post-pandemic retail corridor recovery stalled in early 2026. Visits remained 12.6% below 2019 levels in Q1 and 12.5% below in Q2, reversing some of the gains made during 2025, when the Q2 gap had narrowed to just 9.5%. The slowdown coincided with a broader cooling in consumer demand, with shoppers growing more selective and trimming discretionary purchases.
So what's behind the widening recovery gap, and where are the bright spots?
Comparing Q2 2026 visits with Q2 2019 by daypart shows that the largest remaining recovery deficit is concentrated during weekday mornings and afternoons, with Monday through Friday visits between 8 AM and 4 PM still running 20% to 30% below pre-pandemic levels. That pattern closely mirrors office attendance trends, which remained roughly 30% below pre-pandemic levels this spring. With fewer commuters flowing through downtowns, the coffee runs, lunch breaks, and midday errands that once sustained corridor traffic have yet to fully return.
The pattern, however, is markedly different on weekends. Visit gaps on Saturday and Sunday mornings were significantly smaller and narrowed throughout the day before disappearing entirely by evening. Friday visits between 8 PM and 12 AM exceeded Q2 2019 levels by 2.0%, while Saturday evening visits came in 0.7% above the pre-pandemic benchmark.
In other words, while remote work continues to reshape weekday routines and consumers scale back daytime shopping, retail corridors remain compelling destinations for entertainment, socializing, and dining. The trend aligns with broader consumer spending patterns showing that even budget-conscious households continue to prioritize experiences over goods. It also reflects what's happening on the ground in downtowns nationwide, where restaurants are driving retail leasing activity and cities are increasingly investing in programming that attracts visitors after hours.
Year-over-year data also shows that even though the recovery has stalled, evenings continue to gain momentum. Although overall retail corridor visits fell 3.3% in Q2 2026, nighttime visitation increased across the week. Weekend mornings also proved relatively resilient, while midday shopping hours (12 PM to 4 PM) posted the steepest declines.
At the same time, average dwell time rose from 118.0 minutes in Q2 2025 to 123.0 minutes in Q2 2026. So while fewer people may be visiting retail corridors overall, those who do visit appear to be staying longer than they did last year – a sign that corridors are increasingly serving as destinations in their own right.
Retail corridors may still be waiting on the office worker, but they are increasingly winning the off-the-clock hours. As daytime shopping softens, evenings have become the corridors' engine of growth – especially on Fridays and Saturdays – powered by diners, barhoppers, and experience-seekers who keep showing up even as they tighten their belts elsewhere. For retailers, restaurants, property owners, and civic stakeholders, the evening and weekend windows look like the clearest growth opportunities of 2026.
Will nighttime visitation continue gaining momentum in the second half of the year? Or will office recovery finally spark a weekday daytime comeback? Visit placer.ai/anchor to find out.
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.
