Downtown Recovery Trends July 2020

STATES ARE REOPENING AND CLOSING, experiencing sharp spikes in cases and dramatic declines… but there are some trends that will affect downtowns nationwide.

TOURISM

Summer is the busy season for many downtowns and, for many small- and mid-size towns, the number of tourists is likely to reach the same numbers as 2019. Especially for coastal towns and those with natural beauty, the tourist season just seems to be starting a month late. People are still planning vacations as much as they did last year, but they’re staying closer to home and staying at rentals. It’s not good news for our hotels, but restaurants and shopping districts can still pick up some visitors if they widen the radius of their marketing.

RESTAURANTS

Restaurants enjoyed a major spike in traffic and revenue in late May, even in states that hadn’t reopened. While revenue is holding steady at around 20-25% lower than last summer, restaurants are cautioned not to over-commit: Customers in their 20s and 30s are very quickly abandoning restaurants. While this may not be hitting everyone’s bottom line just yet, we expect to see dramatic declines in downtowns that rely on this demographic. For cities that rely on the summer season, plan to see revenue falling to the levels you saw just before and after the holidays.

EVENTS

People are looking for things to do and some of them are starting to look for events again. Boomers in particular are keen to get out. Unlike most summers, interest isn’t spiking on the weekends: most people are planning further ahead. As you start to plan events again, give people a little more lead time instead of ramping up three days ahead.

ONLINE DIRECTORIES

Now that everyone is comfortable ordering and shopping online, people are becoming more discerning in their tastes. Large directories of restaurants and retail have been extremely effective up till now, but consumers are rapidly shifting back to searching for specific cuisines and dishes. If your site saw increases in traffic because of your directories, now is the time to add the ability to segment by cuisine and to create pages and blog posts along the lines of “our favorite ice cream/pizza/brunch/etc.”

Likewise, it’s time to dust off your event calendars and posts. Boomers are looking for events again and even families are starting to venture out. Focus on the best activities and events rather than every recurring meetup. For events that are online-only, work with your site developer to implement virtual events markup. This will tell search engines that an event is online-only and will help your events rise to the top of search results.

ONLINE RETAIL

The majority of small businesses have put off moving sales online. That strategy won’t be enough to keep them afloat this summer. In fact, many independent clothing retailers are seeing more sales this summer than last. Dozens of tools and services are now free for retailers, but they can still be overwhelming. The simplest solution is the new Facebook Shops. Business owners can create a free Shop as easily as they can post on Facebook, and the results have been extraordinary thanks to Facebook’s knowledge of their audience. Businesses that want to go a little further are also encouraged to check out the free Google Shopping platform. It’s easy to list products for sale, and Google will help by showing local ads to locals first. This is the first time local retailers have really been able to compete with the big box stores online.