STR Tracking for Sonoma County
Things to Note:

  • STR is comparing “Weekly Year Over Year”
  • 52 of the county’s 113 hotels report to STR
  • The average from other destinations includes: Napa, Palm Springs, Monterey, South Lake Tahoe, and Vallejo/Napa Valley
  • For more information on how data is calculated due to hotel closures, please refer to this document.
Smith Travel Research (STR) is the recognized leader in hospitality industry benchmarking around the globe. Powered by the world's largest hotel data sample, they deliver confidential data, accurate and actionable insights, and comprehensive solutions to empower decisions. Discover how STR collects data, how it is calculated, and a glossary of terms, by clicking here. 
Today's Takeaways
From SCT's director of marketing systems & insights, Ariane Hiltebrand
This week’s traveler sentiment update by Destination Analysts shows that American travelers are increasingly willing to travel; 56.5% are “ready to travel” now, 40% still have travel plans for the remainder of 2020, and 60% have travel plans in the next 6 months. Although small towns and rural destinations still dominate fall travel destinations, the outlook points to urban destinations regaining popularity, which correlates with an increase to air travel, especially once a vaccine is near. Travel marketing for 2021 will therefore need to reevaluate and reintroduce pre-COVID strategies and target markets with modifications and innovative ideas.

The desire for safety, cleanliness, distance protocols, and new technologies that allow for contactless and seamless travel experiences, will spur further innovations in the travel space in 2021 and beyond. However, as this week’s survey shows, print marketing channels are not dead, but remain important touchpoints to reach travelers now and in 2021.
Where Americans Want to Travel in the Next Year
From Destination Analysts
Website Insights for sonomacounty.com
Prior to the start of the Glass Fire, we were seeing a +29% increase in traffic week over week, and now we see traffic just 1% up week over week for the period of Sep 25-Oct 1. Traffic declined noticeably the day after the Glass Fire started.

Top content that people were engaging with: the fire page, Life Opens Up fall campaign, coast/beaches, the coronavirus info page, the fire info page, hotel pages and guide order page, an editorial about Bodega Bay, fall colors, wineries, restaurants, hiking, nature parks, and glamping itineraries with West County towns and parks.

Our blog saw traffic for what to expect after the fires, outdoor movies, and the new Sonoma County tasting pass. In terms of city geo locations for website visitors, we see our key drive markets at the top of the list: San Francisco still represents 13% of the total traffic this past week. Los Angeles is still #3, San José is still #4, Oakland is #5, Sacramento is #6. We see 3 out-of-state cities in the top 25: New York, Chicago, and Seattle. Dallas almost made it, coming in at #26.