Donald Trump Presidential Bid Is Hurting Foot Traffic To His Properties

Donald Trump may have seen a dip in polls in recent days, but it’s not only his presidential bid that is suffering — so is his business. That’s according to data from Foursquare, the location-based services company, which shows his sometimes polarizing campaign is hurting sales of Trump-branded casinos, hotels and golf courses.

“Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015, foot traffic to Trump-branded hotels, casinos and golf courses in the U.S. has been down. Since spring, it’s fallen more,” Foursquare said in a Medium post. “In July, Trump properties’ share of visits fell 14 percent year over year, for instance.”

According to Foursquare, before Trump blasted onto the election stage, foot traffic to Trump-branded properties was steady year over year, with a slight uptick in some areas. After he announced his candidacy, Trump-branded properties didn’t get the normal traffic they get in the summer, with customer visits to all of Trump’s properties declining 17 percent in last year’s August compared to 2014. That loss declined to a single-digit percentage after that, until the primary seasone heated up and traffic to his properties fell 17 percent again in March.

Foursquare found the Trump-branded properties that have been feeling the most pain include Trump SoHo, Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago and Trump Taj Mahal, all of which have seen foot traffic decline between 17 percent and 24 percent in the past year compared to the year earlier. When Foursquare looked at it from a blue state/red state perspective, it found the declines in blue states run more than the national average.

Foursquare’s data isn’t the only evidence that Trump-branded properties are running into trouble. Earlier this week, Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City announced it would close for good after Labor Day. The announcement comes after the company exited bankruptcy less than seven months ago. The company’s management blamed huge financial losses and a workers strike as the reasons it is shuttering its door.