Trump’s presidential campaign hits traffic to his properties
05 Aug 2016
Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the top US public office in June 2015, foot traffic to Trump-branded hotels, casinos and golf courses in the US had declined, according to extensive data analysed by location intelligence company Foursquare.
In July, Trump properties' share of visits was down 14 per cent year over year.
Before the announcement, foot traffic to his properties was steady year-over-year - and might have even seen a small uptick. After his entry into the race, Trump branded properties failed to get their usual summertime traffic gains and in August 2015, the share of people coming to all Trump-branded properties was down 17 per cent from the year before.
The losses stabilised to single digits for a number of months, however, with the primary season in full swing, in March 2016, share losses grew again. Trump properties failed to get their usual springtime bounce of travelers and locals. March share was down 17 per cent once more.
The properties that took the hardest hits were Trump SoHo, Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago and (soon-to-be-closed) Trump Taj Mahal, down 17-24 per cent in raw foot traffic this past year as against the previous year.
Many of Trump's hotels, casinos, and golf courses are located in reliably "blue" Democratic states, and are highly dependent on visitors who live in the region.
There had also been a noticeable decline in women visiting Trump-branded properties, the study found, perhaps reflecting the criticism that Trump insulted and offended women, according to commentators.
While the data showed a decline in traffic to stores, it does not make any claims about sales.
It could also be that some Foursquare users were more embarrassed to publicly check in to Trump's locations, but were still going though Foursquare says the data was based "mostly" on actual visits rather than self-reporting.
It might be worth noting that many Trump-branded properties are not actually owned by Trump. Instead, Trump often licenses his name to properties.