We here are Cornerstone Information Systems have been working on a method to aggregate, anonymize, and distribute information about the health of the Travel Industry – gathered from all of the data that flows through our network every month. We feel that, especially in light of the recent crises, it is paramount that companies with data share our knowledge and the foresight it brings so that we might not experience a repeat of the crash that accompanied the emergence of COVID.
To facilitate that goal of data sharing, and yet also keep the data of our clients private, we have been working on the creation of a Cornerstone Index.
Work on this project is still in progress, but we wanted to share with you our biggest numbers coming out of the Index regarding November 2020:
 | Avg Trip Spend (2 days) | $1,040.10 |  (+6%) | |
 | Avg Air Spend | $431.15 | (+6%) | |
 | Avg Hotel Spend | $427.92 | (+7%) | |
 | Avg Car Rental Spend | $181.03 | (+5%) |
There was also a full 33.6% decrease in processed trips taken from October 2020 to November 2020.
** All currency is displayed in USD – the aggregates of our data have been converted into USD before being taken into account and calculating the Index numbers **
- We know the holidays have officially begun when we see corporate travel decrease by this much. Our processed trips fell by 33.6% last month, but this is not related to COVID or to the recovery. We can expect further drop off in December corporate travel as the holiday season gets into full swing.
- Average spend went up across the board – averaging at a 6% increase in total value across air, hotel, and car. This is a clear sign that while the holidays have put their yearly dent in quantity of trips, the actual recovery is still in progress.
- November is the second month in a row since we have been keeping track that none of our price point metrics have decreased in any way. Everything saw increases and is on the steady trajectory that we hoped to see continue. We will be interested to see how the holidays affect these numbers, and if they can stay up and start 2021 on a strong note.
Information on the Cornerstone Index:
Much like how the S&P 500 Index tells the health of the US Stock Market, the Cornerstone Index is meant to reflect the health of the travel industry according to the data that we have available to us.
Please note that we are performing adjustments and cleansing to ensure an accurate index. This means that during our development of the index, some values may fluctuate month to month in their calculations. However, we do not believe this offsets major trends.
We also plan on publishing a table of all of our 2020 numbers as soon as we are happy with our index formula and have been able to present what we feel is the most accurate data for a number of months in a row.
In the future, this will become an interactive app closely resembling our TravelOptix platform. At that time, we will be including functionality for different currencies. We are welcoming any feedback regarding this idea, and look forward to providing this information going forward.
