The South Dakota Department of Tourism says its receiving emails, almost daily over the past few months, from people around the country not only wanting to visit, but also seriously considering moving to the state.
In light of the interest, Tourism has added relocation information on the agency’s website, TravelSouthDakota.com.
According to Tourism’s latest COVID-19 Weekly Research Update:
- South Dakota ranked 3rd for year-over-year domestic travel bookings last week, outperforming all other states but Wyoming and Montana.
- For the week of August 1, travel spending in South Dakota was down -27% compared to the same time last year. That is the best in the region. Travel spending in North Dakota was down -37%, Minnesota was down -50%, and Wyoming was down -28%.
- For the week ending August 1, national travel spending inched up 2%, but is still down (-48%) from last year’s levels.
- National hotel occupancy seems to be leveling off and remains around the 50% mark for most destinations.
- Roughly half of all travelers (49%) do have travel planned for the remainder of 2020.
- While relatively few (16%) Americans think the situation will improve in the next month, the percentage of those who think the pandemic will get worse dropped from 62% to 54%.
- Nearly 70% of survey respondents say COVID-related concerns are important to them when selecting where they plan to visit.
- Three in four survey respondents (76%) expect to travel more in the next year after not being able to travel now.
Tourism officials remind state residents 605strong.com is available to provide mental health assistance to people struggling due to the impact of COVID-19. If you are in need of assistance, call 211 to speak with a counselor.
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