NORTH AMERICAN COVID–19 BAROMETER
The Destinations International Foundation and MMGY Travel Intelligence partnered to poll destination management organizations across North America to measure the impact of coronavirus and actions being taken within the tourism industry as a result of the COVID-19 disease outbreak.
APRIL 20 REPORT | DOWNLOAD THE FULL WAVE IV REPORT HERE.
In our fourth wave of the report, in our most recent findings we’ve identified bright spots on the horizon. The tourism industry will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever as we continue to learn from one another. There is growing optimism among destination organizations. Respondents who expect their local tourism economy to show improvement in the next 30 days went from 2% in Wave III to 14% in Wave IV. And, the percentage of respondents who expect their local economy to worsen fell from 72% in Wave III to 41% in Wave IV.
APRIL 6 REPORT | DOWNLOAD THE FULL WAVE III REPORT HERE.
In our third wave of the survey report, we found that 95% of organizations have either reduced or postponed planned marketing expenditures related to COVID-19 and, for the first time, we’ve observed a decline in the percentage of organizations receiving COVID-19 inquiries – an indication that awareness is becoming more consistent. Despite cancellations and postponed events, destination organizations have managed to remain connected with prospective travelers during this pandemic through social media and informational emails. Paid promotional advertising has experienced the sharpest drop, with only 10% of responding organizations indicating that they continue to invest similarly in this marketing channel today. That said, 50% of organizations expect to return to paid promotional advertising within the next 60 days.
MARCH 23 REPORT | DOWNLOAD THE FULL WAVE II REPORT HERE
This is the second of a multi-wave study on the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on North American destination organizations. In this release, the survey indicates that the expectations that destination organizations had of COVID-19 on local tourism economies went from a sense of uncertainty to a strong expectation of extreme impact over the next 6 months. Since last week, the percentage of destinations reporting coronavirus-related postponements and/or cancellations of conferences, meetings, or events surged from under 40% to almost 100%. Although only 30% of destination organizations have their own pandemic emergency plan, they continue to play an important role in reassuring the traveling public.
MARCH 9 REPORT | DOWNLOAD THE FULL WAVE I REPORT HERE
In this first wave release, the survey indicates that the biggest initial impact has been on business travel and meetings, as almost 40% reported event cancelations of some kind in their communities, with the overwhelming majority being business meetings and conferences. However, respondents have reported a relatively low instance of daily inquiries relating to COVID-19 and destination organizations appear to have taken a conservative approach to managing the situation with minimal shifts in organization operations and marketing.