Irked by the closure of several national parks and museums during the government shutdown, many tourists opted to postpone their trips to Washington D.C. until the situation was resolved. As a result, during the first week of the shutdown, hotel occupancy decreased by over 9% YOY*, restaurant traffic was down almost 8%, and the Smithsonian alone lost almost $3 million in revenue**. Here at Avero, we wanted to know how the recovered government and tourist market affected D.C.’s restaurants.
Overall, in the first full week post-shutdown, gross sales increased 2.7% YOY, marking about a 2% variance from the shutdown period. Total covers rebounded more drastically with an 11% increase year over year.
| Overall YOY Change in Sales | |||
| Shutdown | Post-Shutdown Week 1 | % Variance | |
| Gross Sales | 0.8% | 2.7% | 1.9% |
| Covers | 1.9% | 12.7% | 10.8% |
Following up on our first analysis, which showed that lunch and breakfast were suffering due to the shutdown, these meal periods are now up a great deal — gross Sales are 10% greater and covers are 11% greater YOY than they were during the shutdown.
| Lunch & Breakfast | |||
| Shutdown | Post-Shutdown Week 1 | % Variance | |
| Gross Sales | -2.3% | 7.7% | 10.0% |
| Covers | -1.2% | 9.8% | 11.0% |
In terms of our food vs. beverage mix analysis, food recovered from a YOY decline of 1.6% to an increase of 0.7% following the shutdown. Beverage stayed relatively stagnant with a 0.8% YOY increase.
| Food Sales | |||
| Shutdown | Post-Shutdown Week 1 | % Variance | |
| Gross Sales | -1.6% | 0.7% | 2.3% |
| Beverage Sales | |||
| Shutdown | Post-Shutdown Week 1 | % Variance | |
| Gross Sales | 0.5% | 0.8% | 0.3% |
This analysis shows that D.C. government employees are back at work, evidenced by a sharp increase in lunch traffic/sales, a decrease in dinner traffic/sales, and an increase in food sales rather than in beverage sales. We can also see that tourism is quickly recovering, with almost 13% more traffic in the first week post-shutdown.
*Washington, D.C., Tourism Officials
**Spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas, Smithsonian Institution
