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 March 2022:
 | Avg Trip Spend | $1476.61 |  -0.2% | |
 | Avg Air Spend | $683.89 |  +10% | |
 | Avg Hotel Spend | $564.21 | +4% | |
 | Avg Car Rental Spend | $228.51 |  -26% |
There was also a 25% increase in processed trips taken from February 2022 to March 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 **
March 2022 Analysis
- March has hit a very significant number for both travel and for Cornerstone. Q1 2022 has seen explosive growth in the recovery of business travel. We are within close striking distance of pre-covid monthly trips and could see that number as soon as next month if this trend continues.
- Average trip spend is roughly the same from February to March, but this is only owing to the spike we saw last month in car rental costs. With a sharp return to normal in that category, the price gains in air tickets and hotel costs were essentially nullified in the overall average.
- We absolutely cannot understate the good news regarding just how many trips were processed in March. Year over year growth is immense here. March 2022 is up +105% from March of 2020, and it is up +194% from March 2021. While this is not the only metric important to our industry’s recovery, it is one of the most important. Q2 has the absolute potential to finally surpass 2019 travel numbers. Hold off on the champagne until it happens, though! We’d hate to jinx it!
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.
