Does Valentine’s Day make you nervous? It may, especially if you’re planning a memorable romantic get-together with that special someone that hits all the right notes. It may also make you nervous if you’re a retailer, especially one that specializes in traditional Valentine’s Day gifts like flowers and jewelry. As a retailer, you’ve only just made it past the December holiday shopping season, and now you’re facing another holiday that poses the same uncertainties: How will inflation and other economic factors affect consumer behavior and my sales this February?
Globalization has faced challenges in recent years, with the pandemic and several supply chain disruptions. Nevertheless, companies around the world have kept expanding internationally, both in terms of their reach in foreign markets and also to recruit the world's finest talent. As a result, foreign companies hire a large and growing fraction of the worldwide workforce.
In our pre-holiday department store check-in, we noted positive trends for both the mid-range and luxury department store segments. In this blog, we’ll analyze the latest visit metrics for the department store space. Specifically, we’ll dive into Nordstrom, the visits share leader in the luxury department store category, and the impact of some of its brick-and-mortar strategies aimed at increasing efficiency and driving visits.
Back in November of 2022 monthly national average effective rent growth for new leases fell into negative territory for the first time since 2020. At that time, the negative movement was most pronounced in primary markets. In December, negative growth spread into the larger secondary markets, referred to by ALN as Tier Two markets. With one month of 2023 data now in the books, January looked a little bit like an improvement in some ways, but average effective rent regression has not entirely disappeared.
Off-price apparel was a notably resilient segment during the pandemic, with the major players even expanding their physical retail presence over the past couple of years. Now that inflation has replaced COVID as the major challenge facing retail, we dove into the data to see how the segment is performing and what might lie ahead in 2023.
The latest ForwardKeys data shows that the ability to fly abroad once more following an extended period without long-haul holidays, reveals many travellers are willing to spend more on travel services such as premium cabin classes. This is good news not only for the airlines but also for destinations and tourism-related businesses – as premium-class travellers are likely to spend more on the ground too.
There was surprise around the globe when China announced the easing of most of its COVID restrictions in December 2022. That meant the end of a zero-COVID policy which had suppressed China hotel industry performance for almost three years. That also meant that January 2023 would feature China’s first Lunar New Year holiday without a lockdown since 2019, and as expected, positive performance developed for this important holiday period in the region.
With the Super Bowl approaching (reminder: It’s this Sunday!), more eyes are on the NFL now than any other time of the year. This year, however, the big game is not the only reason for the heightened attention: The Houston Texans’ recent firing of head coach Lovie Smith after just one year has reopened the question of whether the league discriminates against coaches of color. This debate has a long history, stretching back to civil rights investigations that led to establishment of the Rooney Rule in 2003.
It was one of the headline takeaways from data.ai’s State of Mobile 2023 report that there was a slight decline in direct consumer spending in mobile apps last year. The $167 billion total was 2% down from 2021. Inflation and other economic headwinds seemed to be the key factors here.
There are some established indicators of how confident the airline industry is in the long-term future of aviation, some are obvious: aircraft orders, airport expansion and the seemingly daily job fairs being hosted by airports throughout Europe. Another indicator and one that occasionally grabs headlines is the availability and swapping of slots at London Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest and most lucrative airports for many airlines.
Performance recovery was substantial for most of Latin America’s hotel industry in 2022, with Mexico, Central America and South America easily surpassing their pre-pandemic comparables in revenue per available room (RevPAR). While all three experienced substantial growth in room rates, Central America came closest to 2019 level in occupancy.
With January coming to a close, we checked in with our Nationwide Office Index. Are workers being required to come into the office more than they did in 2022? And what do January office visit trends portend for the rest of the year? Despite a growing number of reports that many employers want workers to spend more time in the office, the data shows that at least for now, the office visit patterns that took hold in the second half of 2022 remain strong.
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In our recent collaborations with The Washington Post and Reuters, we explored how the recent wave of layoffs in Big Tech has hit Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in the industry. As we celebrate Black History Month, we are doing a deeper dive into whether companies are heading into a diversity crisis by laying off their DEI talent. As the uphill battle for diversity unfolded during layoffs, some companies have also had sharp declines in their share of diverse new hires.
The fitness industry experienced an exceptionally tumultuous period over the past few years asCOVID-19 restrictions kept many away from their workouts, leading some to question their continued viability. But gyms proved resilient, with foot traffic to major fitness chains recovering as soon as vaccines became widely available and the pandemic began to subside. Now, with the sector’s strongest month of the year behind us, we take a closer look at the segment's January performance to see how major chains are doing post-COVID and explore specialty fitness brands.
The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI), issued by Dodge Construction Network, fell 8.4% in January to 201.5 (2000=100) from the revised December reading of 220.0. In January, the commercial component of the DMI fell 10.0%, and the institutional component receded 4.7%. “The Dodge Momentum Index weakened in January, after 10 consecutive months of gains. While planning activity slowed, the Index remains elevated, and the volume of projects remains steady,” stated Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting for Dodge Construction Network.
The CoreLogic Home Price Insights report features an interactive view of our Home Price Index product with analysis through December 2022 with forecasts through December 2023. CoreLogic HPI™ is designed to provide an early indication of home price trends. The indexes are fully revised with each release and employ techniques to signal turning points sooner. CoreLogic HPI Forecasts™ (with a 30-year forecast horizon), project CoreLogic HPI levels for two tiers—Single-Family Combined (both Attached and Detached) and Single-Family Combined excluding distressed sales.
When we look back at mall performance in 2022, the general takeaway is one of relative success for a segment that had been uniquely challenged by the pandemic and its retail effects. This was especially impressive considering that the impact of COVID was rapidly replaced by economic headwinds that limited a full return to business as usual. In short, 2022 was marked by volatility that hindered a full visit recovery for many within the mall sector.
On February 12, 2023, more than 60k football fans will pack into State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, to experience Super Bowl LVII. For them, they’ll be up close and personal to football’s most exciting night, face-to-face with non-stop action. For the nearly 200mm people expected to tune in to the Big Game, there will be frequent stops in action—stops filled with ads from brands taking the opportunity to get their logo in front of a massive and engaged audience.
Travel and tourism are among the most important sectors for the Albanian economy, both in monetary and employment terms. In 2019, the sector contributed $3,430 million, equivalent to 20.3% of Albania’s GDP, positioning it as one of the main contributors to the country’s economic development. Home to castles, archaeological sites and a pristine coastline, Albania has a lot to offer visitors. Yet the Balkan nation has never held a prominent position on the international tourist map, with its neighbour Greece and other local competitors like Croatia typically attracting many more travellers.
U.S. hotel industry occupancy bounced back in the week after the MLK holiday, reaching 56.3%. That level was up 6.8 percentage points (ppts) from a year ago and just 1.5ppts below the comparable week in 2019. Moreover, the week’s level was the eighth highest ever recorded for the last full week of January—the highest occupancy (58.4%) was posted in 2006. Even better, room demand was the second highest for the week and just 25,000 nights short of the record seen in 2020.
