The Arrivalist Daily Travel Index measured a sharp increase in road trip activity over the Memorial Day Weekend and reveals changing travel patterns in a post-pandemic world.

Is Memorial Day going to slingshot the travel industry into a summer recovery? The last few weeks of American consumer trip activity, as measured by the Arrivalist Daily Travel Index and the latest consumer research by Destination Analysts, Longwoods International, DK Shifflet, and others, appear to suggest the answer is ‘definitely maybe’.

For a 5th straight week, drive market trends around the country moved upward; since the low point on April 3rd, the index value for all trips over 50 miles is up 48.2%.

The reopening of the U.S. economy crossed a major threshold during the first weekend of May, with dozens of malls and shopping centers in multiple states opening their doors to shoppers for the first time. The question is: did anyone show up to shop?

Drive market activity in Texas and Georgia is way up…New Yorkers and Californians have been increasingly getting out of their houses (typically staying within 100 miles of home) …while Floridians, with a radically different approach to reopening, appeared to have stayed closer to home. So, what does all this mean?