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 August 2020:

	Avg Trip Spend (2 days)		$922.71	(-5)%
	Avg Air Spend		$337.27	(- 6%)
	Avg Hotel Spend		$420.91	(- 4%)
	Avg Car Rental Spend		$164.53	(- .04 %)

There was also a 4.9% increase in trips taken from July 2020 to August 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 **

• August saw a stabilization from the July down tick in most prices as well as a stabilization in total trips. July’s travel had fallen significantly since the month prior, but we did not see that trend continue as August had a small bump in total travel of almost 5%

• Average air spend and average hotel spend dipped slightly, causing the overall trip spend to dip by roughly 5%. Car rental costs have not changed significantly again, staying in the $160/trip range since June. 

• Air spend continues to remain in the $300/trip range, suggesting that most companies in the Cornerstone index are remaining primarily in a “domestic travel” pattern. This conclusion is extrapolated from the fact that in our pre-pandemic numbers, the average air spend more closely reflected the international cost of tickets. For example, the average air spend in February was $803.05/trip. 

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.