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Gap Inc. is showing real signs of progress in its turnaround efforts. Since CEO Richard Dickson took the helm in August 2023, the company has been working to revitalize its portfolio of brands – and the latest foot traffic data confirms that strategy is beginning to deliver results.
In Q2 2025, visits to the company’s four banners—Old Navy, Gap, Athleta, and Banana Republic—rose 3.6% year over year (YoY), outperforming the broader apparel category (excluding department stores and off-price retailers), which saw traffic decline 2.2%.
Focusing on the company’s two largest and strongest performers, Old Navy led with a 4.8% increase in overall foot traffic and a 4.5% gain in same-store visits. The namesake Gap brand also posted growth despite a smaller U.S. store base. Notably, overall visits to Gap slightly outpaced same-store sales, signaling that store closures are effectively removing underperformers, while new locations are resonating with shoppers.
Turning to monthly foot traffic trends, both Old Navy and Gap posted significant year-over-year visit gains in April and May 2025 before seeing visitation taper in June and July.
The two chains’ springtime surge may be partially attributed to tariff pull-forward. Following the announcement of new tariffs in early April, many consumers appear to have accelerated purchases to avoid anticipated price increases. This pull-forward effect likely shifted demand into April and May, inflating growth in the short term but contributing to softer traffic in June and July. Memorial Day sales and campaigns like the company’s “Feels Like Gap” campaign may have also resonated with consumers.
Another encouraging sign for the company lies in the shifting income profiles of visitors to its flagship brands.
As illustrated in the chart, the median household incomes (HHIs) of both Gap and Old Navy’s captured markets rose in 2022 and 2023. Inflation and higher prices likely pushed lower-income consumers to trade down to alternatives, leaving Gap and Old Navy with relatively more affluent shoppers.
But since 2023 (for Gap) and 2024 (for Old Navy), HHIs in the chains’ trade areas have begun to decline slightly – suggesting the return of middle-income households. This subtle but meaningful shift indicates that revitalization efforts are reconnecting with the company’s historical core audience – middle-income shoppers who value style at an attainable price point.
Gap Inc.’s Q2 2025 performance provides encouraging evidence that its turnaround strategy is taking hold. Yet the company remains at a delicate juncture. Athleta and Banana Republic continue to lag behind their sister brands, and tariffs represent a significant headwind that could weigh on profitability.
Still, there is reason for optimism. If Gap Inc. can maintain its renewed connection with middle-income shoppers, refine its store strategy, and adapt effectively to the shifting tariff landscape, the momentum seen this quarter could help advance a sustained recovery.
Visit Placer.ai/anchor for the latest data-driven retail insights.
After steep mid-single-digit year-over-year declines in late 2024, Best Buy's (BBY) store traffic is beginning to stabilize. The retailer saw same-store visits fall just 1.5% year-over-year (YoY) in Q1 2025, with the decline narrowing further to 1.2% in Q2. Even more encouraging, several months since January have posted flat-to-positive foot traffic growth – a promising trend as Best Buy approaches the all-important holiday season, where it traditionally excels.
Best Buy’s recent traffic improvement likely stems from continued strength in its computing, mobile phone, and tablet offerings – segments with natural upgrade and replacement cycles that many consumers view as essentials. At the same time, foot traffic data indicates that the company’s online channel – which posted a 2.1% increase in U.S. digital sales last quarter – is helping drive quick in-store visits as customers take advantage of fast BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) options.
As illustrated in the graph below, short-duration visits (under 10 minutes) have consistently outperformed longer ones in 2025, underscoring the role of in-store pickup. In January, short visits jumped 5.3% YoY, likely boosted by Best Buy’s first-ever January Member Deals Days promotion. And in June, short visits increased 4.6% YoY, coinciding with the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 launch, which featured special midnight store openings for eager customers.
While Best Buy trimmed its full-year outlook last quarter and has yet to see a true rebound in store traffic, the narrowing visit gap signals rising consumer engagement. With strengthened omnichannel execution and traffic tailwinds from product launches – as well as the a third-party marketplace set to launch next week – Best Buy may be poised to deliver a strong holiday season ahead.
To see up-to-date retail traffic trends, try Placer.ai's free tools.
The past few years have been challenging for many retail categories, particularly those reliant on discretionary spending. For top athletic retailers like DICK'S Sporting Goods, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and lululemon athletica, this has translated into sustained pressure on physical store visits.
Yet Q2 2025 visit results, when viewed against the backdrop of recent earnings reports, tell a more nuanced story. Rather than succumbing to headwinds, these brands are leveraging strategies from expansion to experiential retail – to weather the storm and position themselves for long-term growth.
DICK’S Sporting Goods provides a case study in mitigating traffic declines through higher ticket sizes, digital acceleration, and a pivot toward destination retail. In Q2 2025, overall visits to the company’s flagship chain declined -5.3% YoY and same-store visits fell -4.5%. Monthly performance was volatile: February and June saw the steepest visit gaps – driven partly by calendar effects (February vs. leap year, June 2025 with one fewer Saturday) and compounded by disruptive weather in both months, from winter storms in February to record heat and flooding in the Northeast in June. Meanwhile, as shown in the graph below, foot traffic in March, May, and July was just below 2024 levels.
Despite these ongoing foot traffic headwinds, DICK'S delivered impressive comp sales last quarter, driven by a 3.7% increase in average ticket size and a 0.8% uptick in total transaction – with e-commerce outpacing overall company growth. The company is also taking proactive steps to shore up its brick-and-mortar appeal, expanding its experiential House of Sport and Field House concepts to make its stores destinations in their own rights. And DICK’s recent Foot Locker acquisition appears to serve the same strategy, leaning into categories where in-person trial and discovery are central to purchase decisions.
Academy Sports + Outdoors also saw same-store visit declines in Q2 2025 (-5.1%), with similar calendar and weather-driven monthly variations. But thanks to strategic fleet expansion, overall quarterly traffic remained relatively stable (-0.9% YoY), with monthly visits even exceeding 2024 levels in May and then again in July.
Online sales (about 10% of the company’s business) also rose 10.2% during the company’s fiscal Q1 (ending May 3rd, 2025), helping offset in-store sales dips and contributing to a 3.7% YoY decline in comps. Academy’s balanced strategy of combining physical expansion with e-commerce strength is enabling the chain to maintain momentum even in a tougher environment.
While Academy widened its guidance range last quarter to reflect macroeconomic risks such as tariff impacts, its continued expansion signals confidence in its long-term trajectory.
Premium athletic retailer lululemon athletica also continues to face consistently lower same-store visits compared to 2024, with overall visits only moderately better.
Like its peers, the brand’s strength lies beyond foot traffic. Growth in direct-to-consumer (DTC) and digital channels paired with higher transaction values allowed lululemon to deliver Americas comps of -2.0% YoY last quarter – a modest decline given traffic headwinds. At the same time, lululemon is expanding its fleet and accelerating international growth, adding further levers for resilience.
Still, the brand’s challenge is clear: to reignite in-store demand by ensuring its locations serve as premium destinations that justify return visits, especially as competition in athleisure intensifies.
Discretionary pullbacks are weighing on athletic retail in 2025. But a closer look at visit data reveals how leading players are adapting.
DICK’S is thriving via ticket growth and digital acceleration, while seeding future trips with its House of Sport/Field House rollout. Academy Sports kept overall visits nearly flat despite a 5.1% same-store traffic dip by leaning into strategic expansion – while also cultivating double-digit online growth. Lululemon has faced the steepest foot traffic drag, but higher transaction values and a bigger DTC mix helped keep domestic (Americas) comps only slightly negative last quarter as the company continues expanding its fleet and growing internationally.
Still, foot traffic remains a critical pillar of long-term growth. Heading into the holiday season, a key test will be whether these retailers can reverse recent visitation trends and draw more consumers back into stores.
Visit Placer.ai/anchor for the latest data-driven retail insights.
Traffic to wholesale clubs is on the rise, with Q2 2025 visits to Costco, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Sam's Club up 3.2%, 5.0%, and 1.6%, respectively, compared to Q2 2024. Same-store visits also increased slightly, with 1.2%, 1.3%, and 1.7% same-store visit growth for Costco, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Sam's Club, respectively.
Last year, Costco and BJ's drove growth through expansion while Sam's Club focused on increasing visits to its existing store fleet. But the Walmart-owned wholesale club is now beginning to expand as well. How might this strategic shift impact traffic to the segment? We dove into the data to find out.
BJ's (BJ) and Costco (COST) are leaning on expansions to drive visit growth, with overall traffic to both chains growing faster than same-store visits, as seen in the chart below. And even with the increased store count, same-store visits to the chains are largely positive – indicating that new stores are not cannibalizing shoppers from existing locations, and that the consumer appetite for membership-based wholesale clubs remains strong.
The companies' traffic growth followed similar trajectories in the first half of 2025: Costco posted slightly stronger numbers in Q1 for both overall and same-store visits, while BJ's outperformed in Q2. July's results reflected this parallel trajectory, with BJ's achieving stronger overall traffic growth (4.7% vs. 3.2%) and Costco seeing better same-store performance (1.9% vs. 1.0%).
While Costco and BJ's expand aggressively, Sam's Club (WMT) has (so far) emphasized store optimization over growth, reflected in the close correlation between overall and same-store visit trends in the chart below. Despite this restrained growth strategy, the Walmart-owned banner has sustained positive year-over-year traffic throughout most of 2025 – demonstrating strong organic growth at existing locations.
Now, the chain appears to be taking a page out of its competitors' expansion strategy book. The company had initiated its strategic pivot in early 2023, with plans to open 30 new stores – but Walmart recently shared plans for a more aggressive expansion of 15 new clubs a year on top of the 30 locations initially announced. With this new strategy, Sam's Club appears to be embracing the expansion-driven growth model that has proven successful for its competitors.
Diving into the visit share distribution between the three analyzed wholesale chains by DMA sheds light on the potential impact of Sam's Club's expansion on the wider wholesale club segment.
Costco and Sam's Club are the larger of the three players: In July 2025, 54.3% of combined visits to the three wholesale clubs went to Costco, and 36.0% went to Sam's Club. (The remaining 9.7% of visits went to BJ's Wholesale Club.)
The maps below shows each chain's regional visit share (by DMA) and highlights the geographic segmentation in the space, which has historically allowed each chain to maintain strong regional footholds with limited direct competition. Costco dominates the West, Sam's Club enjoys the majority visit share in much of the Midwest and South, and BJ's Wholesale Club is popular in the northeast.
But now, as the three chains are expanding beyond their traditional strongholds, the industry may see increased competition for local market share. A new Sam's Club store is slated to open in Arizona where Costco controlled 67.3% of the combined visit share as of July 2025, while a new Costco store recently opened in Texas, where 63.0% of the combined visit share in July 2025 went to Sam's Club. BJ's has also announced plans to expand into Texas and grow its fleet in several other southern states.
As these chains venture beyond their historical strongholds, success will hinge on each operator's ability to adapt their proven regional strategies to new demographics while securing optimal locations before competitors.
For more data-driven retail insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Kohl's (KSS) brick-and-mortar stores continue to play in the company's overall business strategy. During the company's first fiscal quarter (ending May 3rd, 2025), in-store comparable sales declined 2.6% year-over-year – aligning closely with the 2.8% same-store visit decline between February and April 2025 – while digital sales fell 7.7%. And while the visit gap has widened slightly since – between May and July 2025, same-store visits declined 3.4% YoY – in-store traffic trends continue to outperform Kohl’s full-year guidance, which anticipated a 4.0% to 6.0% drop in comparable store sales.
The recent softness can be partially attributed to a sector-wide slowdown in June retail traffic, as shoppers who had pulled forward purchases to avoid anticipated tariff-driven price hikes reduced their shopping activity in June. The wider macroeconomic uncertainty also appears to be hitting mid-market discretionary retailers like Kohl's particularly hard, as many middle-income shoppers continue to trade down to value-forward chains and high-income shoppers gravitate to luxury brands.
Macy's (M) reported a 2.0% YoY decline in comparable sales on an owned basis for its first quarter of 2025 (ending May 3rd 2025) – consistent with the 2.2% YoY decline in combined same-store visits at its three major banners (Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Bluemercury) between February and April 2025.
Like for Kohl's, Macy's same-store visit gap widened in recent months, with combined visits to the three banners down 4.0% YoY between May and July 2025. The company's namesake banner, Macy's, saw the largest traffic declines, while visits to its luxury banners Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury generally increased YoY between May and July 2025. This likely reflects the different economic pressures facing visitors to the Macy's brand: The chain serves a more budget-conscious demographic, with a median household income of $87.7K in H1 2025 in its trade areas, while Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury attract higher-income shoppers with median household incomes of $126.5K and $123.0K, respectively.
This divergence highlights how economic uncertainty is creating a tale of two retails – where luxury resilience and mass market vulnerability are impacting competitive dynamics across Macy's portfolio as well as in the wider retail space.
The softer visit trends at Kohl's and the performance gap between Macy's luxury banners and its namesake brand highlights the challenges faced by mid-market discretionary banners in 2025. As discretionary spending continues to face pressure, retailers serving the middle market may need to adapt their strategies to compete for increasingly budget-conscious consumers.
To see up-to-date department store visit trends, try Placer's free Industry Trends tool.
The home improvement segment continues to face challenges in 2025, but a deeper look into the data for Home Depot and Lowe's reveals a nuanced story of sector-wide headwinds, divergent brand performances, and potential signs of recovery.
Existing-home sales, which can often serve as a powerful indicator for how the home improvement retail sector may behave, are at some of their lowest rates in years. This housing market softness has translated into lowered consumer activity at project-driven stores like The Home Depot. Visits to the home improvement chain were down by -3.9% YoY in Q1 2025 before moderating to a 2.2% decline in Q2.
Monthly visit data offers a more granular view of Home Depot's performance. Despite a sharp YoY decline of 9.2% in February – likely due to inclement weather and the leap year comparison – visits recovered quickly. By July, foot traffic was down by just 2.5% YoY.
These trends point to a cautious stabilization, perhaps driven by shifting economic realities. With home equities up roughly 6% YoY and over half of U.S. homes at least 40 years old, homeowners are undertaking necessary repairs – and Home Depot's status as a contractor hub may help boost visits as economic concerns cool. The company is also leaning into its strengths and driving sales through other channels, such as its B2B offerings, helping position it for growth as market conditions improve.
Lowe's also faced a challenging first half of 2025, with foot traffic trends mirroring the broader home improvement sector's struggles. Quarterly visits declined by 3.7% in Q1 and 3.8% in Q2 on a year-over-year (YoY) basis, reflecting persistent pressure on consumer spending. But visit gaps narrowed by the end of Q2, and by July 2025 were just 1.1% lower than in July 2024.
Like Home Depot, Lowe's was likely impacted by the economic uncertainties and a slower housing market. But unlike Home Depot, Lowe’s still relies on DIYers for the majority of its business. Executives blamed unfavorable weather for pushing back the spring home improvement season, which led to softer DIY performance at Lowe’s in their first fiscal quarter (ending May 2nd 2025) and may have contributed to Lowe's underperformance relative to Home Depot.
Drilling down into regional foot traffic trends for Home Depot and Lowe’s in July reveals that success in the home improvement sector in 2025 is highly localized. Even during the recent challenging period, both chains experienced pockets of YoY visit growth, particularly clustered in parts of the Midwest and Southeast. For Home Depot, traffic trends were strongest in North Dakota, where YoY visits grew by 7.6% – but visit growth was clustered throughout the region. Lowe’s also enjoyed visit growth across several states, with its strongest performance centered in Midwestern states like Indiana (+4.4%) and Kentucky (+2.8%).
These geographic patterns highlight how demand in the home improvement segment shows significant variance by market, with both chains appearing to benefit in areas with steadier home sales. This is a reminder that, while nationwide visits are lower than in previous years, pockets of strong local demand can still provide a significant boost for each brand.
Moving forward, the home improvement segment has plenty of ways to adapt to a softening economic environment and slowing home sales. Will home improvement visits pick up? Or will housing market challenges continue to spill over to foot traffic?
Visit Placer.ai/anchor for the latest data-driven retail insights.
In today’s retail landscape, consumer behavior is influenced by a multitude of factors, directly impacting the success of products and brands. This report explores the latest trends in value perception, shopping behavior, and media consumption that impact which brands consumers are most likely to engage with – and how.
In the apparel space, consumers continue to prioritize value and unique merchandise.
Analysis of visits to various apparel categories reveals a steady increase in the share of visits going to off-price retailers and thrift stores at the expense of traditional apparel chains.
And the popularity of off-price chains and thrift stores appears to be widespread across multiple audience segments. Analyzing trade area data with the Experian: Mosaic psychographic dataset reveals a clear preference for second-hand retailers among both younger (ages 25-30) and older (51+) consumer segments. Meanwhile, middle-class parents aged 36-45 with teenagers – the “Family Union” segment – are significantly more likely to shop at off-price apparel stores, highlighting their emphasis on buying new, while saving both time and money.
This suggests that the powerful blend of treasure-hunting and deep value, central to both the off-price and thrift experiences, is driving traffic from a variety of audiences, and that other industries could benefit from combining affordability with the allure of unique products.
Diving deeper into the location intelligence for the apparel space further highlights thrift and off-price’s broad appeal – and that a combination of quality and price motivates consumers to visit different retailers.
Between 2019 and 2024, the share of Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom visitors that also visited a Goodwill or Ross Dress for Less increased significantly.
And while this could mean that the current economic climate is causing some higher-income consumers to trade down to lower-priced retailers, it could also be that consumers are prioritizing sustainability and seeking value in terms of “bang for their buck” – shopping a combination of retailers depending on the cost versus quality considerations for each purchase.
Consumers increasingly expect to shop on their own terms, opting for a more flexible shopping experience that blurs the lines between traditional retail channels and categories.
Superstores and warehouse stores, for example, often evoke the image of navigating aisle after aisle of nearly every product imaginable – a time-consuming endeavor given the sheer size of their stores. But the latest location intelligence shows that more consumers are turning to these retailers for super-quick shopping trips.
Between 2019 and 2024, the share of visits lasting less than ten minutes at Target, Walmart, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Sam’s Club, and to a lesser extent Costco, rose steadily – perhaps due to increased use of flexible BOPIS (buy online, pick-up in-store) and curbside pick-up options. These stores may also be seeing a rise in consumers popping in to grab just a few items as-needed or to cherry-pick particular deals to complement their larger online shopping orders.
This trend highlights the demand for frictionless store experiences that allow visitors to conveniently shop or pick up orders even at large physical retailers.
And the breaking down of traditional retail silos isn’t limited to big-box chains. Diving into the data for quick service restaurants (QSR), fast casual chains, and grocery stores indicates that more consumers are also looking for new ways to grab a convenient bite.
Since 2019, grocery stores have been claiming an increasingly large share of the midday short visit pie – i.e. visits between 11:00 AM 3:00 PM lasting less than ten minutes – at the expense of QSR chains. This suggests that consumers seeking quick and affordable lunches are increasingly turning to grocery stores to pick up a few items or take advantage of self-service food bars. Notably, the rise in supermarket lunching hasn’t come at the expense of fast-casual restaurants, which have also upped their quick-service games – and have seen a small increase in their share of the quick lunchtime crowd over the past five years.
While some of QSR’s relative decline in short lunchtime visits could be due to discontent with rising fast-food prices, it’s clear that an increasing share of consumers see grocery and fast-casual chains as viable options during the lunch rush.
In 2025, tapping into hot trends and creating viral moments are among the most powerful tools for amplifying promotions and driving foot traffic to physical stores.
Retailers across categories have successfully harnessed the power of pop culture collaborations to generate excitement – and visits – by leaning into trending themes. On October 8th, 2024, for example, Wendy’s launched its epic Krabby Patty Collab, inspired by the beloved SpongeBob franchise. And during the week of the offering, the chain experienced a remarkable 21.5% increase in foot traffic compared to an average week that year.
Similarly, Crumbl – adept at creating buzz through manufactured scarcity – sparked a frenzy with the debut of its exclusive Olivia Rodrigo GUTS cookie. Initially available only at select locations near the artist’s concert venues, the cookie was launched nationwide for a limited time from August 19th to 24th, 2024. This buzz-driven release resulted in a 27.7% traffic surge during the week of the launch, as fans rushed to get a taste of the star-studded treat.
And it’s not just dining chains benefiting from these pop-culture moments. On February 16th, 2025, Bath & Body Works launched a Disney Princess-inspired fragrance line, perfect for fans of Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Moana, and Tiana. The collaboration resonated, fueling a 23.2% visit spike for the chain.
While tapping into existing pop-culture trends has the ability to drive traffic, so does creating a new one. Analysis of movie theater visits on National Popcorn Day (Sunday, January 19th, 2025) shows how initiating a trend can spur social media engagement and impact in-person traffic to physical retail spaces.
National Popcorn Day was a successful promotional holiday across the movie theater industry in 2025. Both Regal Cinemas and AMC Theatres offered popcorn-based promotions on the day, but Cinemark’s “Bring Your Own Bucket” campaign, in particular, appears to have spurred a significant foot traffic boost during the event.
Visits to Cinemark on National Popcorn Day in 2025 increased 57.5% relative to the Sunday visit average for January and February 2025, as movie-goers showed off their out-of-the-bucket popcorn receptacles on social media. Clearly, by starting a trend that invited creativity and expression, Cinemark was able to amplify the impact of its National Popcorn Day promotion.
Location intelligence illuminates some of the key trends shaping consumer behavior in 2025. The data reveals that value-driven shopping, demand for flexibility across touchpoints, and the power of unique retail moments have the power to drive consumer engagement and the success of retail categories, brands, and products.
Placer.ai observes a panel of mobile devices in order to extrapolate and generate visitation insights for a variety of locations across the U.S. This panel covers only visitors from within the United States and does not represent or take into account international visitors.
Downtown districts in the nation’s major cities attract domestic travelers all year long with their iconic sights, lively entertainment, and diverse dining offerings. But each hub follows its own rhythm, shaped by distinct seasonal peaks and dips in visitor flow.
This white paper examines downtown hotel visitation patterns in four of the nation’s most popular destinations for domestic tourists: Miami, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Focusing on 20 downtown hotels in each city, the analysis explores seasonal variations in domestic travel, city-specific dynamics, and differentiating factors.
Domestic tourism has rebounded strongly in recent years, and hotels in Miami and Chicago have been the biggest beneficiaries. In 2024, visits to analyzed hotels in each of these cities’ downtown areas grew by 8.9% and 7.4%, respectively, compared to 2023. Meanwhile, hotels in downtown and midtown Manhattan saw a more modest 2.0% increase, while Los Angeles experienced a slight year-over-year (YoY) decline in downtown hotel visits.
One factor that may be driving Miami and Chicago’s stronger performance is their higher proportion of long-distance visitors, defined as those visiting from over 250 miles away. Miami remains a top destination for snowbirds and spring breakers, while Chicago serves as a cultural and entertainment hub for the sprawling Midwest. These long-distance leisure travelers may be more likely to splurge on downtown hotel stays during their trips, helping drive hotel visit growth in the two cities.
By contrast, hotels in the Los Angeles and Manhattan city centers drew lower shares of domestic travelers coming from less than 250 miles away. These shorter-haul domestic tourists may be less likely to splurge on downtown hotels than those taking longer vacations. Both cities are also surrounded by numerous regional getaway options that can draw long-haul leisure travelers away from their downtown cores.
Each of the four analyzed cities has its own unique ebbs and flows – and city center hotel visits reflect these patterns. Miami, with its warm, sunny climate, experiences influxes of tourists during the winter and spring, with March seeing the biggest jump in downtown hotel visits last year (13.0% above the monthly visit average). Chicago, which thrives in the summer with its many festivals and events, saw its biggest downtown hotel visit bump in August. Meanwhile, Manhattan experienced a major uptick in December, likely fueled by holiday tourism and New Year celebrations, and Los Angeles visits were highest in the summertime.
What drives these seasonal visit peaks? Miami has long been a top tourism destination, especially in early spring, when snowbirds and spring breakers flock to the city for sun and relaxation. In recent years, the city has seen a rise in short-term domestic tourism, suggesting that the city is becoming increasingly popular for weekend getaways. According to the Placer.ai Tourism Dashboard, the share of domestic tourists staying just one or two nights grew from 71.7% in March 2022 to 78.3% in March 2024.
This shift aligns with an impressive increase in the magnitude of downtown Miami’s springtime hotel visit peak: In March 2022, visits to downtown hotels were 5.0% above the monthly average for the year, a share that more than doubled by 2024 to 12.9%.
These numbers may mean that more people are choosing to head to Miami for a quick break from the cold – and staying in downtown hotels to make the most of their short getaway.
Chicago’s major August visit spike was likely driven by the Windy City’s impressive lineup of major summer festivals, from Lollapalooza to the Chicago Air and Water Show, which draw thousands of attendees from across the country.
Lollapalooza fueled the largest visit spike to the city – between Thursday, August 1st and Sunday, August 4th, visits to downtown Chicago hotels surged between 51.1% and 63.8% above 2024 daily averages for those days of the week. The Air and Water Show and the Chicago Jazz Festival also generated significant hotel visit increases – highlighting the boost these events bring to the city’s tourism and hospitality sector.
The Big Apple draws a diverse mix of visitors throughout the year. But in December – the city’s peak tourist season – visitors pour in from all over the country to skate in Rockefeller Center, browse Fifth Avenue’s festive window displays and experience the city’s unique holiday magic.
And analyzing data from hotels in midtown and downtown Manhattan reveals a striking shift in the types of visitors who stay in the heart of NYC during the holiday season. While visitors from other urban centers dominated downtown hotel stays throughout most of the year – accounting for 47.9% of visits from January to November 2024 – their share dropped to 42.0% in December 2024. Meanwhile, the share of guests from suburban areas and small towns rose from 37.3% to 41.0%, and the share of guests from rural and semi-rural areas nearly doubled, from 3.5% to 6.1%.
These patterns suggest that, though Manhattan typically attracts a wide range of visitors, the holiday season is uniquely appealing to tourists from smaller towns and suburban areas. Understanding these trends can provide crucial context for hotels and civic stakeholders alike as they work to maximize the opportunities presented by the city’s December visit surge.
Los Angeles hotels also experience significant demographic shifts during peak season. In July, visits to downtown LA hotels surged by 15.3% relative to the 2024 monthly visit average. And a closer look at audience segmentation data suggests a corresponding surge in the share of "Flourishing Families" – an Experian: Mosaic segment consisting of affluent, middle-aged households with children. Throughout the year, "Flourishing Families" comprised between 7.7% and 8.7% of the census block groups (CBGs) driving visits to downtown LA hotels. But in July, this share jumped to 9.9%.
These families may be taking advantage of summer vacations to enjoy Los Angeles’ cultural attractions and entertainment. Hotels and city stakeholders who understand the appeal the city holds for this demographic can better cater to them through family-friendly promotions and strategic marketing efforts to target these households.
Downtowns are making a comeback – and hotels in the heart of the nation’s major tourist hubs are reaping the benefits. By understanding who frequents these downtown hotels and when, local businesses and civic leaders can optimize their resource management and strategic planning to make the most of these opportunities.
The New York office scene is buzzing once again, as companies from JPMorgan to Meta double down on return-to-office (RTO) mandates. But just how did New York office foot traffic fare in 2024? How did Big Apple office foot traffic compare to that of other major business hubs nationwide? And how is New York’s office recovery impacting post-COVID trends like the TGIF work week? Are office visits still concentrated mid-week, or are people coming in more on Fridays and Mondays? And how has Manhattan’s RTO affected local commuting patterns?
We dove into the data to find out.
In 2024, New York City cemented its position as the nationwide leader in office recovery. Thanks in part to remote work crackdowns by banking behemoths like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan, visits to NYC office buildings in 2024 were just 13.1% below pre-pandemic (2019) levels.
For comparison, Miami’s office foot traffic remained 16.2% below pre-pandemic levels, while Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Boston saw significantly larger gaps at 28.6%, 37.8%, and 43.9%, respectively.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the Big Apple’s robust year-over-five-year (Yo5Y) recovery, the pace of year-over-year (YoY) visit growth to NYC office buildings was somewhat slower in 2024 than in other major East Coast business centers. Still, New York’s YoY office recovery rate of 12.4% outpaced the nationwide baseline, and came in just slightly below Washington, D.C.’s 15.2% and Atlanta’s 14.6%.
Interestingly, New York’s return to office has not led to a significant retreat from the TGIF work week that emerged during COVID. In 2024, just 11.9% of weekday (Monday to Friday) visits to NYC offices took place on Fridays – only slightly more than the 11.5% recorded in 2023 and significantly below the pre-pandemic baseline of 17.2%.
Meanwhile, Monday has quietly regained its footing as the dreaded start of the New York work week. After dropping significantly in 2022 and 2023, the share of weekday office visits taking place on Mondays rebounded to 18.2% in 2024 – just slightly below 2019’s 19.5%. Still, Tuesday remained the Big Apple’s busiest in-office day of the week last year, accounting for nearly a quarter (24.6%) of weekday NYC office foot traffic.
And diving into Yo5Y data for each day of the work week shows just how much New York’s overall recovery is driven by mid-week visits – and especially Tuesday ones. In 2024, Friday visits to NYC office buildings were down 40.2% compared to 2019. But on Tuesdays, visits were essentially on par with pre-pandemic levels (-0.3%), even as nationwide office visits remained 24.6% below 2019.
Another post-COVID trend that has shown staying power in New York is the growing share of office visits coming from employees who live nearby. As hybrid schedules become the norm, it seems that those commuting more frequently are often just a short subway ride -or even a stroll- away.
The share of NYC office workers coming from less than five miles away, for example, has risen steadily since COVID, reaching 46.0% in 2024. Over the same period, the share of workers coming from 5-10 miles, 10-15 miles, or 25+ miles away has declined.
Looking at commuting trends across the East Coast helps put New York City’s shift into perspective. In 2019, NYC’s share of nearby commuters was on par with Washington, D.C. and slightly below Boston. But while both cities experienced moderate increases in local commuters between 2019 and 2024, New York pulled ahead, outpacing all other analyzed cities in its share of nearby office workers last year.
Miami and Atlanta – two other standout cities in office recovery – also saw significant growth in the percentage of short-distance commuters over the past five years. This trend underscores a broader shift: As hybrid work reshapes commuting habits, employees across multiple markets are more likely to go into the office if they live nearby, reducing reliance on long-haul commutes.
As the nation’s office recovery leader, New York offers a glimpse into what other cities can expect as office visitation rates continue to improve. Even at just 13.1% below pre-pandemic levels, NYC office visit levels continue to rise. And as recovery nears completion, trends that took hold during COVID remain firmly entrenched.
