Hotel review solution TrustYou has launched its Travel Health Index in order to benchmark hotel review activity by country during the Covid-19 crisis. The index takes reviews from one week in 2020 and compares the number to those from the same period in 2019. There is a global index, and each country has its own index. The index also includes the percentage change from the week prior.
The current index, at 10, shows data from the week beginning March 23. This number means there were only 10 percent of the number of reviews in 2020 compared with the same week in 2019. Two weeks ago, the index was at 60, said TrustYou VP of marketing Valerie Castillo, adding that the company plans to update it weekly. Further, it shows only countries with a "credible amount of reviews." The minimum number is 60; there presently are more than 50 countries featured.
The index key is divided into five sections by color and by 20 percentile markers: bright green for "steady" means there were at least 80 percent of the number of reviews compared to last year; light green for "declined" means there were 60 percent to 80 percent of the number of reviews; orange for "impaired" (40 percent to 60 percent); light red for "severe" (20 percent to 40 percent); and dark red for "lockdown" (less than 20 percent of the number of reviews).
Given the current breadth of the outbreak, nearly all the countries included for the week of March 23 are in dark red, or "lockdown" mode. The exceptions are Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, the Maldives, New Zealand, Russia and Taiwan, which are classified as "severe."
"Our hope is that by publishing this data each week, we will start to see countries coming out of lockdown," Castillo said. "For example, if I go into Asia, I do see that Japan and Taiwan are on an uptick, and China had a very slight uptick of 1 percent compared to last week.
"It will be tricky this time as to what will upswing first," Castillo continued. "We think it's probably going to be domestic leisure, as business travel revolves around offices reopening and events being held. I think it will be a couple more months before we see that [a country] is in the middle range of yellow or light green. When they're back in the bright green, that more likely [means] that corporate and business travel is back on board."