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 July 2022:
 | Avg Trip Spend | $1522.61 |  -5% | |
 | Avg Air Spend | $702.52 | -8% | |
 | Avg Hotel Spend | $571.41 | -3% | |
 | Avg Car Rental Spend | $248.68 |  +0.9% |
There was also a 14% Decrease in processed trips taken from June 2022 to July 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 **
July 2022 Analysis
- July saw a sizeable dip in travel for the summer, with a 14% decrease in trips taken during the month compared to June. Year over Year for July is at +32% of trips processed through our systems from 2021 to 2022. Last year also saw Q3 with the most travel volume, and this trend is continuing despite the drop. In fact, as of right now, 2022 is at 98.9% of 2021’s total travel volume processed by Cornerstone.
- After the relative stability of prices in the previous months, July’s prices dipped a good amount. An 8% drop in air spend and a 3% drop in hotel spending are significant. Interestingly, the average nights per stay INCREASED despite the lower spending (from 2.97 nights per stay to 3.17), indicating the cost per night dipped more than the average may imply.
- There are a lot of potential factors that we can attribute the slowdown to, from anxieties over the virus to anxieties over corporate bottom lines for the year. Being at the halfway point for 2022, a lot of companies may be reevaluating their margins (positively or negatively) and making decisions about travel based on that. All we know for sure is that July numbers being lower than June is a trend reversal from years past.
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.