March 17, 2020 – George W. Hammond, Ph.D., EBRC director and Eller research professor

Revised March 19, 2020 – Added indicators: new coronavirus cases reported daily for Arizona and  AZ counties and cumulative number of cases reported daily for the U.S.

The U.S. and Arizona economies are experiencing a huge shift in business and consumer behavior due to the spread of COVID-19. As the impacts of reduced household wealth and social distancing work through the economy, it will be important to track the economic performance of the travel and tourism sector and the overall economy. EBRC has a wealth of data to help you do that!

To get an early read on how the impacts of social distancing are impacting travel and tourism, this page presents daily indicators for number of coronavirus cumulative cases reported daily for the U.S., Arizona and AZ counties (not all AZ counties are reporting yet) and weekly indicators of the overall number of initial claims for unemployment insurance for the U.S. and Arizona, U.S. gross sales of movie tickets, the number of U.S. movie releases, and U.S. hotel occupancy rates.

These are indicators, among many others, tracked by CalculatedRiskBlog.com. I recommend you regularly check out his analysis.
Here’s what I (and many others) expect to see in these indicators. Due to social distancing and the closure of theaters in many parts of the U.S., we will see major declines in movie ticket sales and movie releases. Hotel occupancy rates will also fall dramatically. As travel-and-tourism-related businesses lay off workers we will see initial claims for unemployment insurance spike up.

At first, the news here is mostly going to be bad, but keep coming back. The economy will begin to improve as we move through the year, and that improvement will be reflected in these data.

I will post analysis regularly here on Arizona’s Economy as the situation develops. Take a look at the interactive charts and tables below. We are also hosting the indicators on the homepage so you can check back frequently for updates and as we add more indicators.

Just scroll down the page to review the indicators and download data. Check back here often for updates and new indicators.

Daily Indicators

Use your cursor as a tooltip and click on charts to view values. Click on the names of indicators listed at the bottom any chart to switch them on/off to view fewer at one time and make comparisons. Icons allow you to download and share.


As of March 23, 2020, all Arizona and U.S. daily confirmed coronavirus case data is extracted, recorded, and updated on the site between 9am and 10am PST. It is possible for these numbers to change throughout the day. 



Weekly Indicators


Note: The official Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance numbers for the U.S. are released every Thursday morning covering the week ending on the previous Saturday. An advanced number for Arizona is also released in the morning, however the revised official number is released in the afternoon. We update using the official release.