The South Dakota Department of Tourism says it’s seeing some positive movement in travel spending and consumer sentiment again this week.
According to Tourism’s latest COVID-19 Weekly Research Report, South Dakota continues to surpass national and regional averages in travel spending, domestic bookings and hotel occupancy.
A few highlights from the report are:
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The percentage of those who feel the coronavirus situation in the US will get worse in the next month dropped from 55.6% last week to 49.1% this week.
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For the week ending August 15, national travel spending was down 44%. Even though national spending continues to be depressed, it was the fifth consecutive week of expansion (growing 5%).
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South Dakota’s average hotel occupancy in July reached 64.5% which was the second highest in the US, surpassed only by Idaho at 66.1%. The US average was 44.6%.
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The western region of South Dakota led hotel occupancy in July reaching 70.8%.
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Consumer preference for outdoor recreation continues to grow. Visitation to our state park system surpassed 5 million visitors YTD, which is a 28% increase compared to last year.
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International visitors still have strong intentions to visit the US as their next international destination when they feel comfortable traveling again.
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