Thanks to die-hard Cactus League baseball fans and college students on spring break, local Phoenix restaurants, retail shops, and lodging businesses see their best revenue month of the year in March.
That’s just one finding from the latest analysis from Womply, a small business software company. Womply’s data science team looked at sales for every day of the calendar year during 2019 at 5,000+ local restaurants, retail businesses, and lodging places near MLB spring training sites and found that baseball fans and vacationing college students bring a welcome surge of revenue to cities participating in spring training.
Key findings for Phoenix in March by small business category:
Lodging
• Local hotels see increases in both daily revenue and purchase price of 27% over the average the rest of the year, respectively.
• Lodging places in Phoenix see 4 of the top 5 revenue weekdays of the year during spring training.
Retail
• Retailers also reap the rewards of a springtime boost. Daily revenue increased by 11% over the average for the rest of the year and transaction volume picked up by 9% over the average.
• 4 of the top 5 weekdays for Phoenix retailers occurred during spring training.
Restaurants
• Phoenix restaurants should brace for an influx of patrons and cash. Last year, transaction volume (a proxy for foot traffic) and average revenue both increased by 9%.
• Local restaurants also had 1 of their top 5 weeks and 2 of their top 5 days of the year in March.
