The Summer Urban Exodus

Kids are getting out of school at this time of year, and many families plan a week or two of vacation. Many will be packing up the SUV and heading for a cottage or second home to spend part or all of the summer. Some will rent a place from Airbnb or VRBO, others are...

Accounting for Tourist Demand

Many site selection analysts continue to cling to using the total population within an expected trade area as the primary indicator of likely demand at a location. In our view, this often introduces error in forecasts because total population is rarely the best...

Summer at the Lake

Tourism can have significant impacts on retail sales, especially those related to convenience goods and food services. Over the years, many retail models have been built that use only the demographics of local residents while ignoring entirely the impacts that...

Beaches and Bridges

Some of the best summer beach vacation spots are also known for summer traffic. Friday night coming in, Sunday afternoon going out to be home in time for work on Monday. On the Atlantic coast, it seems that the best beach towns are located on offshore barrier islands,...

Where Did Everybody Go?

In Toronto, where I grew up, the summer ritual for many middle-income families included the trek from the city to cottage country every weekend from Victoria Day (May 24th) to Labor Day. The weekly migration of the herds could have easily been a National Geographic...