NEW YORK — Location data company Arrivalist predicts 48.8 million Americans will travel by automobile during the Thanksgiving holiday (Wednesday through Sunday). While volume is predicted to increase 9.6% over last year, it will be 2.3% lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
“Travel has been inching back up to 2019 levels,” says Arrivalist Founder and CEO Cree Lawson. “This Thanksgiving will be a litmus test on the resilience of family travel. Are we going to finally return to pre-pandemic levels for good? Or will the growing specter of a winter resurgence keep us grounded through another holiday season.”
The Daily Travel Index is a daily measure of road trip activity taken by residents of all 50 U.S. states, with volume indexed against the average daily volume of 2019 travelers. It was designed as a free online resource available on Arrivalist’s website to provide the travel industry with insights to help plot its path to recovery during the Covid-19 pandemic. Site visitors can compare visitation in 2021 to activity from the same period in 2019, not just the timeframe when travel slowed to a virtual standstill in 2020. Additionally, a customized Daily Travel Index is available to clients, which allows them to compare activity in their market to a nationwide index.
How the Data is Calculated
Arrivalist’s methodology is based on a representative balanced panel of GPS signals representing road trips taken specifically in cars (excluding travel by air). A trip is measured as one where the user has traveled a minimum of 50 miles and spent a minimum of two hours at the destination. Commuter travel or other frequently repeated trips—i.e., cargo deliveries or other reoccurring activities—are excluded from the Daily Travel Index.
About Arrivalist
Arrivalist is the leading location intelligence platform in the travel industry. The company uses multiple location data sets to provide actionable insights on consumer behavior, competitive share, media effectiveness, and market trends. Over 200 travel marketers, including 100 cities, 40 U.S. states, and four of the top 10 U.S. theme parks, use these insights to inform media strategy, operations, and destination development. Arrivalist is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto.
Source: Arrivalist