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 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.
Here are the numbers coming out of the Index regarding February 2022:
 | Avg Trip Spend | $1441.55 |  +10% | |
 | Avg Air Spend | $603.84 | +16% | |
 | Avg Hotel Spend | $525.74 |  -6% | |
 | Avg Car Rental Spend | $311.97 | +39% |
There was also a 21% increase in processed trips taken from January 2022 to February 2022.
** 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 **
February 2022 Analysis
- February 2022 was the “most traveled” month for Cornerstone clients since the pandemic began in March 2020. The previous record holder was October 2021, but February surpassed that record by 9.5%. This is the third straight month of steady growth.
- The other big boost came from rental car costs. Not only did February see the most cars rented in one month since March 2020, but it was also the first time during the pandemic era that rental car costs per trip surpassed the $300 mark. With a car costing a traveler $224.62 on average last month, this is almost a hundred dollar increase.
- With three of the four categories jumping by double digit percentages, we can officially say that 2022 has started with a significant boost. January always sees significant growth due to the return to business travel from the holiday months. However, a strong February cements a strong Q1 trend that we do not anticipate slowing down. Trade shows are ramping up, conferences are being held, and mask mandates are being relaxed. All of this means more travel.
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.
