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...

Spring Break Travel

It’s that time of year, when everyone seems to get an itch to go to the beach, go skiing, or go see family just to get out of the house. Spring Break is back, and maybe bigger than ever. According to a survey by Vacasa, a travel website, 56% of Americans are planning...

It’s Often in the Details

We recently ran across a post that looked at housing vacancies in Manhattan that was interesting but got us thinking. Most standard demographic reports include a reference to the number of housing units which are estimated to be currently vacant, and this can be an...