A few short weeks after millions of travelers headed out for Thanksgiving, the Omicron variant continues to emerge as many more travelers and hoteliers plan for Christmas and New Year’s. The upcoming travel boom is worrying public health officials and the emerging variant is complicating travel plans for some.
However, so far, the variant isn’t expected to significantly dampen holiday travel, as pandemic fatigue and confidence in vaccines remain strong, experts say.
The end of the year is typically the busiest holiday travel period of the year and data from The MAPP Report emphasizes these trends. Over the past few weeks, occupancy and RevPAR have continued to climb as we head into Christmas week.
As occupancy has continued to climb, myDigital Office took a look at 2020 vs. 2021—occupancy levels are almost double where we were in 2020, despite the continued concern for the Omicron variant as of Dec. 20—occupancy is clocking in around 40%, up from 20% in 2020.
Industry experts say that confidence in vaccines and booster shots will keep millions traveling over the winter holidays despite uncertainty. Just beyond Christmas, myDigital Office is also tracking MAPP Report trends for New Year’s Eve. New Year’s statistics have also continued to climb week over week as well as RevPAR.
As travelers plan to head out to ring in 2022—myDigital Office has also seen a steady jump in occupancy year over year.
New Year’s is currently clocking in around 45% occupancy, up from 20% in 2020.