Economic optimism (or pessimism, for that matter) is a key metric in forecasting your attendance and revenue. A more optimistic population more freely spends its income, is more likely to travel, and is more likely to visit more attractions, buy food and beverage, and tour opportunities when they do so. Understandably in reverse, a nervous or more pessimistic population is more apt to put its earnings into savings, invest in long-term pay- outs, and seek out stay-cation, free, or at-home entertainment in lieu of the big annual family vacation.
Although expectations for 2019’s US economy are just a couple points higher than our four-year average, they are just a tiny fraction lower than 2017’s outlook. Despite this decline, these “lows” are nothing like 2016, where we saw a quarter of respondents expecting the economy to worsen, and only 39% expecting it to improve. Of interesting note is that these numbers continue to fluctuate slightly within a range of nine percentage points, while the overall health of the economy continues a year-over-year strengthening. Since we began this report in 2016, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen from approximately 17,000 to 25,000 (although with a significant dive in the first quarter of 2018, mired by data breach scandals), and the rate of unemployment has dropped from roughly 5.7% to 3.7%.
Regardless of Permanxiety, attraction visitors tend to monitor key economic performance indicators and remain positive overall for the coming year, with the most optimistic travelers being young, employed, minority men with children.
US Economy in Next 6 Months -22%
EXPECTATIONS FOR THE
2018 +25%
-25%
2016 +14%
47% 48% 39% 42%
-21%
2017 +27%
-17%
2015 +25%
Expect to Improve Expect to Worsen
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