Travellers in New York and Chicago might be familiar with Black Friday discounts, but consumers are cutting back on their weekend shopping too. The lines of shoppers to take advantage of deep discounts that usually cross most the shopping nations can no longer be as long as they once were, according to research by Expedia.
Tourists and people visiting home have also taken advantage of Cyber Monday, with travel deals beginning as early as Friday online, depending on destinations. So what does this mean for tour operators and hotels in these big destinations?
According to research by Expedia, the average number of hotel nights booked per customer over the Black Friday weekend have dropped from a high of 4.2 last year, to 3.2 this year. The biggest decrease was in New York City, where weekday nights are now between 2.5 and 2.8 nights booked per customer. Another reason for this drop is that people are simply online shopping earlier, rather than in person and grabbing deal after deal after deal.
In fact, hotels in New York and Chicago seem to be responding to this trend by announcing bigger discounts and booking greater amounts of rooms during the week than they would during a typical weekend. If the trend continues, expect even longer waits for rooms, when Black Friday weekend is turned into longer weekends, with people staying home more.
One of the biggest travel deals at the moment is the Chicago Jazz Festival this week. Vue Outright is offering 20% off its rental car and hotel packages.
For more information on this week’s saving offers and discounts, click here.