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The athletic apparel and sporting goods landscape has faced various headwinds throughout 2025 – from shifting consumer spending patterns to challenging macroeconomic conditions. Against this backdrop, an AI-powered analysis of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and lululemon highlights where each brand may find momentum in 2026.
DICK’s delivered a solid fiscal Q3, and the most recent year-over-year (YoY) foot traffic data indicates that stability carried into the following months. The company continues to work through the integration of Foot Locker – streamlining inventory and refining operations – while simultaneously expanding its House of Sport and Field House concepts. Investment in these experiential formats underscores a strategic commitment to immersive retail and broader merchandise diversification to drive long-term growth.
Academy Sports + Outdoors delivered positive top-line growth and profitability in fiscal Q3, despite a modest decline in comparable sales. And while management noted record Black Friday performance, cooling same-store traffic persisted from November 2025 through January 2026.
Yet focusing solely on offline traffic may overlook several of Academy’s omnichannel growth drivers. The brand emphasized the connection between digital customer acquisition and continued store expansion, since a growing store footprint expands BOPIS fulfillment capacity. In this context, softer visit trends may reflect channel mix shifts, positioning the company for long-term growth.
Lululemon’s fiscal Q3 results reflected a bifurcated performance, with U.S. revenue declining modestly while international growth surged. At the time, management emphasized product innovation and global expansion as strategic priorities in 2026, reinforcing the brand’s long-term growth roadmap; so while recent YoY foot traffic trends point to some domestic pressure, the strength of lululemon’s international markets serves as a stabilizing force that could reignite engagement stateside over time.
Lululemon, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and DICK’s performance shows that strategy and execution across channels matters. DICK’s investment in specialized formats, Academy’s omnichannel push, and lululemon’s international expansion, each address distinct growth levers in a challenging discretionary environment.
For more data-driven retail insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Over the past two years, Costco has made several moves that risked upsetting its famously loyal customer base – including raising membership fees in September 2024 and restricting food court access to members only. But visit data suggests that, rather than deterring shoppers, these changes have supported rising engagement and a broadening customer base.
The chart below shows that Costco entered 2026 with solid visit momentum. Both total and same-store visits posted healthy year-over-year gains through the back half of 2025 and into January.
That resilience aligns with recent earnings reports, which show Costco delivering consistent mid-single-digit comparable sales growth throughout 2025. By raising the “cost of commitment,” Costco may be discouraging casual or opportunistic users while deepening engagement among shoppers who do the math and shop more frequently to justify the fee.
Perhaps the clearest signal of Costco’s durable positioning lies in its evolving demographic profile. While the chain continues to over-index on affluent consumers, it is also attracting a growing cohort of younger shoppers, reflected in the chart below by a rising share of “Contemporary Households” – a young-skewing segment comprising singles, married couples without children, and non-family households. As this cohort has expanded, Costco’s overall income profile has also subtly broadened.
The persistence of this shift despite higher fees challenges the notion that price increases drive exclusivity. For many households, the fee remains a rational trade-off for reliable savings – and the broader reach gives Costco added leverage to negotiate pricing and defend margins.
Costco’s recent moves show that pricing power and scale don’t have to be trade-offs. By pairing higher fees with stricter enforcement, the company is strengthening loyalty, preserving value perception, and widening its appeal to younger households – all while keeping traffic strong. That combination leaves Costco unusually well positioned as cost pressures persist: a retailer with both the volume to command supplier leverage and a member base committed enough to sustain it.
For more data-driven retail analyses, 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.
When grocery analysts think about low prices and private label, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl often come to mind. And while all three operate in the value-driven grocery space, they differ meaningfully in how they run their stores, position their brands, and engage consumers. An AI-based analysis of shopping behavior and audience characteristics for each chain reveals how distinct brand strategies are influencing visit patterns and could continue to shape performance heading into 2026.
One of the defining themes of the 2025 retail narrative was the consumer’s continued focus on value, and the grocery sector was no exception. Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl – all known for extensive private label assortments and competitive pricing – each experienced positive year-over-year visit growth in all four quarters of 2025. And with the exception of Lidl in Q3, they consistently outperformed the broader grocery category, underscoring the enduring pull of value in a cost-conscious environment.
While some of that growth can be attributed to Aldi, Lidl, and Trader Joe’s expanding store footprints, increases in average visits per location suggest that demand rose alongside store count. If value remains a primary motivator in 2026, these low-price grocers appear well positioned to continue capturing incremental foot traffic.
Despite shared characteristics – private label dominance and ongoing expansion – Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl take very different approaches to the in-store experience. An analysis of visit length highlights how each brand’s balance of convenience and assortment influences how shoppers interact with its stores.
Across the grocery category, 22.1% of visits in 2025 lasted under 10 minutes – a higher share than at Trader Joe’s, Aldi, or Lidl. This likely reflects the widespread availability of curbside pickup and quick in-and-out trips at traditional grocers, which isn't offered at Trader Joe’s and Lidl and is only available in a limited capacity at Aldi. 18.2% of the grocery category’s visits also lasted between 10 and 15 minutes, reflecting many just slightly longer top-up visits consistent with the high-density presence of traditional grocers in many markets.
Trader Joe’s stands out for its concentration of mid-length visits. The chain posted the highest share of visits lasting 10 to 15 minutes and 15 to 30 minutes, suggesting a highly efficient shopping experience.
This pattern aligns with Trader Joe’s small-format stores and tightly curated assortment, where seasonal items and cult-favorite products anchor clear shopping missions. Shoppers appear to arrive with a plan and move quickly through the store – reinforcing Trader Joe’s strength as a fast, focused destination.
Aldi sees a higher share of visits in the 15 to 30 minute and 30 to 45 minute ranges than the grocery category overall, edging out Lidl slightly in both buckets. This suggests that Aldi’s limited-SKU and small-format model simplifies navigation and decision-making. Meanwhile, no-frills merchandising – with products often displayed in cartons or on pallets – supports its value perception, so shoppers still spend meaningful time winding the aisles to save money.
Lidl shows the strongest skew toward longer visits, including the highest share of visits lasting over 45 minutes (11.7%), exceeding Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and the grocery category overall.
This reflects Lidl’s positioning somewhere between a traditional grocery store and a superstore. Its in-store bakery, broader meat and dairy selections, housewares, and wider assortment require more time to navigate, and its stores are typically larger than Aldi’s while remaining smaller than conventional grocers. Together, these factors encourage more comprehensive stock-up trips.
Lidl’s relatively smaller store footprint network may also play a role, pushing shoppers to consolidate trips rather than supplementing with quick, nearby visits – a behavior more common in the broader grocery category.
Small, efficient store formats are a shared advantage for Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl, but the data suggests that footprint alone doesn’t define the shopping experience. Rather, each chain’s strategic differences meaningfully shape how consumers move through their stores.
At the same time, there is strong evidence that pickup remains a powerful draw for grocery shoppers – more than one in five grocery visits last under 10 minutes. If Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl want to capture more of those short trips, expanding convenient pickup options could be an opportunity worth exploring.
Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl may share a reputation for value, but they are not competing on the same terms. Each chain’s philosophy shapes how shoppers engage with its stores – Trader Joe’s through curated discovery, Aldi through uncompromising efficiency and low prices, and Lidl through a full grocery experience at a discount. As value remains a powerful driver of grocery traffic, continued success will depend on each brand doubling down on the elements of its model that set it apart and resonate most clearly with its core shopper.
Will 2026 be another stand-out year for these grocers? Visit Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
Commercial real estate’s reputation as a technology laggard is not entirely undeserved. At its core, CRE is a see-touch-and-feel industry, as much art as science. Local knowledge, intuition, and long-standing relationships continue to shape how deals get done, and that reality isn’t likely to change. Boots on the ground matter, as firsthand market insight and trust between brokers, landlords, and tenants, remain central to the business.
That context is essential when thinking about technology’s role in CRE. Tech can support and enhance decision-making, but it cannot replace the fundamentals. AI, for example, can make processes faster and more efficient, but it will not change the core of how CRE works. It will never be the tool that says, “I know a landlord who’s about to bring this space to market, and I’m getting the first look because of our relationship.”
That said, technology does have an important role to play. During COVID, when activity slowed dramatically, many organizations finally had the time to look inward and ask how technology could support faster, more resilient decision-making once the market returned. As the industry continues to invest in digital tools, three principles stand out.
Technology delivers the most value when it is guided by well-defined questions. One of the most persistent challenges in CRE’s use of technology is data fragmentation and fatigue. The industry generates enormous amounts of data, much of it spread across spreadsheets, emails, platforms, and institutional knowledge. And without knowing what you want to accomplish, that volume can quickly become overwhelming.
As shown in the chart above, for example, even when a national trend appears relatively modest, the underlying regional variation can be significant. Without a clear question guiding the analysis, it’s easy to walk away with a generic conclusion that misses where performance is actually diverging. Framed correctly, the same data becomes a tool for understanding where demand is strengthening, where it’s softening, and how strategy should differ by market.
Once the right questions are defined, the next challenge is selecting the right tools. Here again, clarity matters. There is no universal technology stack for commercial real estate. Organizations operate across different markets, asset types, and strategies, and technology needs to reflect those differences.
Thinking in terms of a recipe provides a more useful framework. The questions define the goal, and technology becomes a set of ingredients chosen to achieve it. Some tools add context, others improve precision, and others help scale insights across teams by surfacing distinct metrics and perspectives. The objective is not to find a single solution or data point that does everything, but to assemble the right combination that supports how the organization actually works.
The graph below highlights the value of layering multiple signals to understand performance. Topline visit trends offer a baseline, but adding context around visitor profile and travel patterns helps clarify what’s actually driving change. When analyzed together, these signals move analysis beyond surface-level conclusions and toward insight that can inform real decisions.
The technology best positioned to help CRE is shaped by how people actually use it. Companies that consistently learn from their users, refine inputs, expand data sets thoughtfully, and stay focused on real decision-making are far more likely to deliver lasting value.
The true test of any technology is whether it helps professionals make better decisions faster and with greater confidence while reducing risk. When insights surface quickly and are paired with on-the-ground experience and market context, data reinforces what CRE professionals already see and understand. Used this way, technology becomes a decision-support tool that facilitates de-risking and enables organizations to act at the right speed without losing sight of the fundamentals.
When analyzing mall properties, for instance, sustained weekday and weekend visit growth, paired with a broadening and increasingly family-oriented audience, can signal traffic that is more likely to endure. Identifying these deeper patterns in visit behavior helps validate assumptions, align strategy, and move forward with greater confidence, especially when paired with local market context.
As technology adoption continues, CRE leaders face an additional challenge: distinguishing between tools that meaningfully support these principles and those that generate attention without lasting value. Some technologies – like foot traffic and demographics – will become table stakes, while others will struggle to move beyond experimentation.
One area to watch is Virtual AI, including remote site visits and digital building tours. These tools may streamline early-stage evaluation and expand access, even as final decisions continue to rely on boots on the ground. Ultimately, their impact will depend on whether they reinforce the fundamentals of CRE – clear questions, practical workflows, and faster paths to confident decisions.
Since taking the reins in 2023, Gap Inc. CEO Richard Dickson has pursued a turnaround strategy aimed at reinvigorating the legacy apparel retailer, with promising results so far. Did that positive momentum carry through the end of the year? And what can location analytics reveal about the role of each of Gap Inc.’s largest banners in powering the company’s recovery?
Recent foot traffic data points to solid traffic momentum at Gap Inc. With the exception of a brief dip in December – likely driven by holiday demand pulling forward into November, along with one fewer Sunday compared to 2024 – year-over-year (YoY) company-level visits remained consistently positive over the past six months.
Throughout the period, same-store visits slightly outpaced total traffic, reflecting a more optimized fleet following the closure of several underperforming stores over the past year. Gap Inc’s robust traffic patterns also align with recent earnings commentary showing positive company-level in-store comparable sales in Q3 2025 and improving execution across Gap’s leading brands, as the company continues its strategic reset.
Looking at the company’s two largest brands shows that each is contributing to the company’s rebound in a different way. In Q4 2025, Gap slightly outperformed Old Navy on a quarterly basis, with banner-level traffic up 1.6% YoY, compared with 1.2% at Old Navy. However, Old Navy delivered more consistent monthly gains throughout the analyzed period – including in September, when Gap experienced a modest decline.
Gap’s traffic trends were notably more variable, with a stronger YoY lift in November, likely reflecting the brand’s greater sensitivity to seasonal storytelling and early holiday demand. This responsiveness was especially apparent on Black Friday, when Gap visits surged 504.4% above its 2025 daily average, compared with a still-robust but more measured 436.4% increase at Old Navy.
Old Navy’s smoother monthly performance likely reflects its role as the portfolio’s stability engine, with value-driven and replenishment trips supporting steady traffic throughout the year. Gap, on the other hand, appears to fulfill a more discretionary function, with visits responding more sharply to merchandising, marketing, and holiday timing.
Visitor behavior data for Gap and Old Navy further reinforces the two brands’ distinct positionings. Old Navy attracts longer, more frequent visits that skew toward weekdays, signaling habitual shopping tied to browsing, value-seeking, and building everyday wardrobe essentials. Gap, meanwhile, sees shorter, less frequent visits that are more likely to occur on weekends – consistent with more discretionary trips tied to seasonal needs, inspiration, or occasional splurges.
These differences between the two banners may help shape how Gap Inc. approaches its next phase of growth. In January 2026, the company leaned into “fashiontainment” with the appointment of former Paramount executive Pam Kaufman as Chief Entertainment Officer. At the same time, it has begun expanding into beauty and accessories, including the launch of Beauty Co. at 150 Old Navy locations nationwide.
As these strategies roll out, allowing them to express themselves differently across Gap and Old Navy could help maximize the strengths of each banner. At Gap, fashiontainment may lend itself to high-impact cultural moments and narrative-driven campaigns that tap into the brand’s strengths in nostalgia and storytelling – such as last year’s Better in Denim campaign featuring Katseye. At Old Navy, the same idea may be most effective through large-scale, family-friendly partnerships that reinforce its role as a dependable, mass-market destination – like the Disney collaboration launched last May. A similar dynamic could emerge in beauty, with Old Navy’s Beauty Co. supporting frequent, routine visits, and beauty at Gap reinforcing fashion authority and cultural relevance rather than driving habit.
For more insights into the consumer patterns shaping retail strategy, 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 home improvement space has faced sustained pressure from macroeconomic headwinds – including persistent inflation and a cooling housing market – prompting many consumers to delay major projects and defer big-ticket purchases. But is a category turnaround in the works? An AI-powered foot traffic analysis of the sector’s largest players – The Home Depot and Lowe’s – offers insight into whether momentum has shifted and a period of growth is on the horizon.
Both The Home Depot and Lowe's reported sales growth alongside an uptick in big-ticket purchases in fiscal Q3 2025, indicating that consumers were investing in significant upgrades despite many bigger renovations remaining on the back-burner. And the latest foot traffic data suggests that this momentum likely carried forward into the subsequent months.
In November 2025, both chains saw visit and same-store visit growth of roughly 3% year-over-year (YoY) – a sign of meaningful Black Friday traffic and a healthy start to the holiday shopping season.
And while December 2025 saw modest visit gaps, these likely stemmed in part from tough YoY comparisons to December 2024’s storm-related demand.
Traffic to both chains rebounded in the new year, with preparations ahead of Storm Fern likely accounting for some of January 2026’s YoY visit gains.
Overall, the past several months of foot traffic data paint a picture of continued positive momentum for The Home Depot and Lowe’s through fiscal Q4.
Large-scale projects may not yet be at hoped-for levels, but the data suggests consumers are still investing in their homes. And with mortgage rates trending lower, housing activity showing early signs of a turnaround, and the potential for abundant home equity to fund renovations, the home improvement sector appears poised for continued growth.
Will the home improvement space build on its successes in 2026? Visit Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
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.
