Americans Shun Southern Hot Spots This Summer: TripAdvisor CEO
(Bloomberg) -- Americans are starting to avoid popular southern beach destinations this summer amid a surge in coronavirus cases in Sun Belt states, said Stephen Kaufer, chief executive officer of TripAdvisor Inc.
“You look at the top searches and I think five or six of the top 10 a couple of weeks ago were all wonderful southern beaches,” Kaufer said on CBS's “Face the Nation” on Sunday, pointing to states such as Texas and Florida. “But that switched. Everyone's moving essentially up north, away from all these hot spots.”
Chicago, Las Vegas and Honolulu took over the top three trending destinations based on searches on TripAdvisor in the week of June 28. A week earlier, Miami Beach, San Diego and Key West, Florida, held the top spots.
Even New York City, the epicenter of the initial wave of the outbreak in the country, gained popularity as the number of new cases there stayed low. The Big Apple joined the Top 10 U.S. destinations searched in the week of June 28, and outranked almost all Florida and California cities.
Still, traveling to these destinations may not be easy. Hawaii will require out-of-state travelers to get a Covid-19 test done prior their arrival to avoid a 14-day self-isolation. The program starts Aug. 1 as the tourism-dependent state tries to kick its economy into care.
The New York tri-state area doubled the quarantine list to include 16 states from which visitors are currently unwelcome. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants anyone traveling to the city from 15 states seeing Covid-19 surges to self-quarantine for two weeks.
Florida appears to have missed out the most in this vacation season, based on TripAdvisor's ranking. This coincides with a decline in flight search interest for the Sunshine State, where seven of its cities made the top 10 registering the biggest drop in flight searches by U.S. consumers.
The searches fell about 30% week-over-week, according to data by Kayak.com. The state reported another record daily increase in virus infections on Friday, a sign that the outbreak is expanding and leading to more serious clinical consequences.
American travelers aren't worried about airlines going bankrupt, but safety is their top priority, Kaufer added. “Everyone in the travel industry is really, really concerned about this slip backwards that we've now seen the U.S.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
