Quite interested to get feedback from the dozens of appointments our teams have scheduled with key operators to better gauge visitor sentiment, travel demand and most importantly, outbound travel restrictions.  We’ll provide a more detailed update upon our return.

As we continue to monitor key indicators, one need not look further to current “airlift” (flights and the total number of passenger seats scheduled to fly into Miami International Airport).

For the upcoming 4th quarter (October – December), there are a total of just over 4.5 million domestic airline seats scheduled to arrive in Miami.  This is a remarkable increase of 43.4% above the number of scheduled seats during the  4th quarter back in 2019.  This is part of the supply/demand chain of events that is helping respond to and fuel our short-term recovery – and currently our key dependance on domestic leisure travel.

That said (time for a pun), significant headwinds remain with respect to key international source markets and total seats heading our way for the upcoming 4th quarter.  Compared to the same period in 2019, Canada’s total of scheduled seats is currently down 41%.  Europe’s schedule is down 32.5%. One bright spot is Central America - up 25% for this upcoming quarter compared to 2019. Mexico’s scheduled seats for quarter four are also up 7.8%. And equally encouraging, scheduled seats from all of South America are up 4.2% using the same 2021 to 2019 comparison.

So unfortunately, we will need a bit more time to monitor the resumption of significant inbound travel from Canada and Europe.  This will not only impact our leisure visitor potential but international attendees seeking to travel here for major events, trade shows or conventions. 

This will simply have to continue to be monitored – and much more will be known in the upcoming weeks and months.  Speaking of upcoming and recent activities, I encourage you to read on about some of the key elements shared in this week’s What’s Happening.

David Whitaker