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 now increasingly open to travel and excited to learn about travel experiences. With stress also reported at a high, many travelers look to travel to relax and connect with loved ones and nature. Millennials are the most stressed generation, followed by Gen Xers. Boomers are still more concerned about their own personal safety than the other two generations. Fall season still holds great opportunities to fulfill travelers’ desire for road trips and wellness travel, as travelers still prioritize road travel through the remainder of 2020. |
|
Road & Air Trips Expected
From Destination Analysts
|
|
Destination Analysts Key Findings to Know
From Destination Analysts' Travel Sentiment Report
|
|
- Nearly half of American travelers feel a high degree of stress in their daily lives. But while stress is up compared to a few months ago, the propensity to worry about coronavirus is down.
- Since April, and amidst rising stress, more Americans are reporting stronger prioritization of relaxation, finding joy/happiness, and—especially important for travel—having new experiences.
- Those who are already traveling (or ready to without hesitation) are far likelier to be prioritizing finding joy and escaping from boredom in their lives over the next six months compared to other Americans.
- Openness to travel continues to bloom. The level of excitement for learning about new travel experiences or destinations to visit is at a pandemic-period high—one last obtained at the end of May.
- Unlike early on in the pandemic, now less than 50% of American travelers consider staying in a hotel, Airbnb or home rental, dining in a restaurant, visiting an amusement park or other outdoor attraction, recreating outdoors and shopping to be unsafe. Overall perceptions of travel’s safety remain at the lowest levels they have been during the pandemic.
- Now just 37% agree they need a vaccine to travel, down from a high of 45% at the start of August.
- Half as many Americans are saying they are going to change the types of travel destinations they choose to visit post-pandemic than in April, and among those that are saying they will indeed change the types of destinations they choose to visit, more positive reasons are being offered up as to why than in prior months, including an increased willingness to explore new destinations and crossing places off their bucket lists.
- Americans are also less likely to feel their leisure travel will be dampened by the current state of things.
|
|
Website Insights for sonomacounty.com
|
|
On the heels of the busy Labor Day weekend, overall traffic to the website has decreased week over week during the week of Sept. 11-17, mostly due to decreases in organic search. However, with the start of SCT’s new fall campaign, we are seeing increasing engagement with travel planning tools and fall pages on the website.
Top content that people were engaging with: Life Opens Up fall campaign and road trips landing page, coast/beaches, the coronavirus info page, the fire info page, and editorial about Bodega Bay, wineries, restaurants, hiking, nature parks, and itineraries with West County towns. Our blog saw traffic for outdoor movies, what to expect after the fires, black owned businesses, shopping, and food and wine experiences in fall.
In terms of city geo locations for website visitors we see our key drive markets on top of the list: San Francisco represents 13% of the total traffic this past week. Los Angeles moved up to #3, San José is #4, Sacramento #5. We now see 5 out-of-state cities in the top 25: New York, Chicago, Reno, Seattle, and Dallas.
|
|
How many visitors came to Sonoma County last year? How many of them stayed overnight? Where did they travel from? What method of transportation did they use to get here? What activities did they do? And how much money did they spend?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
