Duetto’s latest Pulse Report, which tracked data from October 19 through November 1, showed a definite slowdown in pick-up and web traffic as uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 continues across the United States and Canada.
In the region, web traffic showed only a very modest rise of 14 percent overall compared to the last Pulse Report. Several states saw declines, including Nevada (down 5 percent), Tennessee (down 35 percent), and Colorado (down 21 percent).
The pick-up data echoed this lack of web traffic, with a consistent plateauing of new bookings compared to the last Pulse Report. The state by state data showed some gains, but nothing significant. For example, California increased by 17 percent, Florida by 28 percent, Washington by 19 percent, and Nevada by 4 percent, despite aggressive promotional activity from some Las Vegas casinos. Several states saw a decline in pick-up, including Hawaii (down by 18 percent), New York (down by 34 percent), and Illinois (down by 43 percent).
It was a similar story in Latin America, with slowdowns in web traffic and only very modest increases in new bookings. The Latin America region as a whole recorded a 5 percent decline in web shopping compared to Duetto’s last report, with net new bookings increasing by only 9 percent. In terms of pace, Latin America slowed slightly over the last couple of weeks. The region had been averaging around 7 percent but slowed to 6 percent in the latest report.
Daniel Lofton, Duetto’s director of hospitality solutions for the Americas, commented, “Normally we see increases across the board, so the ups and downs from state to state that we are seeing at the moment is unusual. States that usually do well are barely performing, and Hawaii is particularly surprising as it performed worse after loosening restrictions.”
“Perhaps the recent election has kept people close to home. This election saw one of the biggest turnouts of voters ever, so that may have played a part in the figures being so subdued.”
