As many Americans expect to travel during the Fourth of July weekend, travel advertising technology company Koddi reports that U.S. digital demand has continued its climb to 2019 levels as the U.S. enters its historically busiest travel season as more travelers are looking to go to beaches or national parks. This has been at least partially fueled by a drop in the daily COVID-19 case rate that is now below the rate seen at the peak of the initial wave in March 2020.
The experts at Koddi believe that based on the current trajectory, it is likely that the Fourth of July holiday will bring near-record demand in the U.S. Historically, this holiday has had about three times the demand as Memorial Day. Koddi has been carefully monitoring COVID’s effects on the hotel industry since the beginning of the pandemic through a monthly insights report. Over the past several weeks, Koddi sees a strong correlation between recovery and the rise in hotel searches.
“The July 4th weekend continues the growing trend that we witnessed during Memorial Day weekend, which was the first time we saw travelers in mass looking to travel,” said Deep Kohli, senior director, client services, Koddi. “It’s evident that travel and hotel demand is on the rise, and we can expect this to continue to be a busy season. We believe that this summer will be the turning point in travel recovery.”
Key insights from Koddi’s June report:
- U.S. demand has continued to increase over the past month and is now higher than any point in 2019. The demand is expected to continue to increase over the next two months.
- Advanced booking windows continue to track toward historical levels. The 0-1, 2-7, and 8-30-day windows each have about 28% of the demand share, with the longer windows splitting the remaining about 16%. During the pandemic, the 0-1-day range had the most demand since travelers searched for rooms last minute.
- Cities along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts have had the strongest growth year-to-date as travelers eye beach destinations for summer travel.
- The top 10 cities for demand growth this year include Las Vegas, Orlando, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, San Diego, Miami, San Antonio and Houston.