We here at 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 August 2021:
 | Avg Trip Spend | $1265.94 |  -11% | |
 | Avg Air Spend | $495.09 | -20% | |
 | Avg Hotel Spend | $536.56 |  +2% | |
 | Avg Car Rental Spend | $234.29 | -13% |
There was also a 5% decrease in processed trips taken from July 2021 to August 2021.
** 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 **
NEW: Total volume of trips processed by Cornerstone in 2021
August 2021 Analysis
- While we began to notice growth slowing down last month (likely due to the Delta Variant of COVID-19), this was the first month since Oct 2020 that we saw an actual decrease in total trips taken. While a downturn is never a stat that we want to report, we can at least confirm that this concluded 8 months of growth.
- Air prices plummeted this month. Last month, the average ticket cost was over $600, and this month it dipped below $500. The few main reasons: less travel, less demand, and possibly also less long distance trips. With the dip in traveler confidence due to the Delta Variant, it is possible that business travelers are forgoing the long (or even international) trips for now until things get better again.
- Hotel costs and stay duration was the only factor to stay very steady from July to August this year. The total hotel trip cost fluctuated only ~$10, and the stay duration only changed by 0.12 nights. So even if business travelers took less trips, their trips remained the same length as last month.
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.
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.
