The latest edition of the Duetto Pulse Report, which tracked data from June 15-28 across three key hotel metrics—bookings, cancellations, and web traffic—shows growing consumer confidence for travel dates in 2021.
By Memorial Day Weekend starting on May 22, all 50 states had lifted or partially lifted stay at home orders, and many hotels began reopening. As such, the industry is now seeing continual improvement across all three metrics for the North American market.
On the books, data for the second half of 2021 is already pacing strongly ahead of the same time last year. This is most likely due to pushback on groups but is a good indicator that 2021 could be a year of recovery for the industry.
Short- and mid-term on-the-books data continues at a positive pace when compared week-on-week, with the current edition of the Pulse Report showing growth for July, August, September, and October versus the previous edition, which tracked data for June 1-14. However, these figures remain firmly behind the same time last year.
Nashville and Florida See Positive Growth
Data for June 15-28 shows steady growth in pick up for hotels in North America across the short- and mid-term compared to the prior Pulse Report, which tracked data for the first two weeks of June. For July, August, and September, the latest data shows double-digit growth in net new reservations.
While this is encouraging, it is important to note that net pick up in the North American market is still pacing 42 percent behind 2019.
Also, this pick-up data refers to North America as a whole. Different stories are emerging at the local level: Nashville and Florida have seen positive growth, while Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York continue to show little to no growth, and in some cases, even decline.
Web traffic data (bookings, regrets, and denials on brand.com) for future stay dates remains one of the most positive signs of recovery, with clear spikes in web shopping traffic ahead of holiday periods. These trends in web traffic, which largely represents transient demand as corporate and group travelers rarely shop brand.com, show that transient demand is focused on short- to mid-term travel.
Latin America Trails Behind
Latin America had been showing signs of recovery, but that is curtailing as the region sees a surge in new coronavirus cases. This may also be impacted by a decline in travelers from the United States and Canada, where the virus is also spiking.
In terms of on-the-books business, Latin America’s pace is not only behind last year, but it is declining week-on-week. Fewer on-the-books reservations for July 2020 compared to four weeks ago suggest that Latin American hotels are losing more bookings than they are gaining.
In terms of new bookings, Latin America is seeing growing consumer confidence for long-term travel dates. Bookings for stay dates in late 2020 on into 2021 are still behind the same time last year, but they are not as far behind as the short-term months: July, August, and September.
