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STR Tracking for Sonoma County

Things to Note: STR is comparing “Weekly Year Over Year” 49 of the county’s 112 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, Destination Analysts is seeing improvements in several travel sentiment metrics, driven largely by younger travelers’ increased yearning for the health benefits of traveling (connecting with people, experiencing nature, de-stressing and escaping). Although 55.6% of American travelers continue to feel that the pandemic is going to worsen in the next month (up 2 points from last week), excitement to travel now markedly increased to 51.1% (from 44.5% last week) and openness to travel info increased to 48% (from 42.3% last week). Travel plans for the remainder of 2020 increased for all months, with road trips still the dominant travel mode over air travel; however, we currently see this equaling out in December and then flipping for 2021 towards increased air travel. Cruises, crowded destinations and places with sanitary or hygiene problems remain the top issues for travelers and 50% indicate that they are not ready to travel yet. Travel providers should stay on course to further refine health & safety measures, mask enforcement and social distancing to make travelers feel confident about visiting their destination.

Destination Analysts Key Findings to Know From the 8/11 Destination Analysts' Travel Sentiment Report

Americans of all ages continue to say staying safe from infection is their top lifestyle priority over the next half-year. Compared to two months ago, younger travelers are now further prioritizing many psycho-emotional needs like escaping stress and relaxation, while Baby Boomers are placing less emphasis on these. Nearly 6-in-10 agree that planning a vacation for sometime in the next 6 months would bring them happiness. Driven by younger travelers, excitement for near-term travel and openness to travel inspiration returned to levels last seen in early June, and there was a small increase in travel readiness. Compared to how they felt in April, Americans are now less likely to agree that the types of travel destinations they choose will change after the pandemic, and less likely to say they will avoid many types of experiences. Colorado, Alaska and Montana have joined Florida, Las Vegas, California and New York as some of the top destinations Americans are saying they most want to visit in the next year. Americans find airline, hotel and restaurant discounts most appealing. Convention travelers’ trust in their fellow attendees to behave in a way that minimizes the spread of COVID-19 has lessened slightly.

Website Insights for sonomacounty.com

Looking at the week of July 31 – Aug 6, overall traffic to sonomacounty.com has increased by 3.24% week over week, and organic search is up by 1.64% over last week. Guide orders are up 8% week over week and accommodation listings views are up 4.6%. Top content that people were engaging with: coast/beaches, Life Opens Up summer campaign and road trips landing page, the coronavirus info page, and editorial about outdoor activities, nature parks, coast, Russian River, Lake Sonoma and redwoods, glamping and camping, wineries, gardens, and road/bike trips. Our blog saw high traffic volume for new experiences in Sonoma County, black owned businesses, outdoor movies, and sunset spots. In terms of city geo locations for website visitors we see our key drive markets on top of the list: San Francisco is the top source for website visitors with a share of 19%, Sacramento is #3, San José number #4, Oakland #5, and Los Angeles is #7. We saw 2 out-of-state cities in the top 25: New York and Chicago.

MMGY Global COVID-19 Travel Insights Report With Confidence Shaken, Consumers Need to Know Who to Trust The surge of COVID-19 cases across areas of the country along with increased awareness about the nature of the virus have disrupted consumer confidence in travel, and yet, we continue to see a strong desire to travel. What travelers need now, more than ever, is to know where to place their trust. Download the full MMGY travel insights newsletter here and get the latest research reports and expert insights into how to navigate the next normal as it unfolds at MMGYGlobal.com/COVID-19.