Meet the Metrotechs heading the move back to the Sydney CBD post pandemic.
Roy Morgan has partnered with UberMedia to aggregate data from tens of thousands of mobile devices to track the movements of Australians during restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The "young and trendy" Metrotechs now make up 42% of the most recent movement data around the Sydney CBD, up from 39% at the start of the year.
Metrotechs are described as socially aware, successful, career-focused and culturally diverse.
They are also trend- and tech-focused. They are committed experience seekers, willing to spend big on the best of city life, and thrive on being out and about in the world.
The analysis of movement data in Sydney’s CBD shows a new decline in movement in recent weeks as concerns increase about a second wave of COVID-19.
The number of devices seen in the Sydney CBD during week ending July 27 averaged only 48% of levels during January and February.
These levels are also down on movement the first week of July that had returned to 53% of the pre-pandemic level, a high point in movement in the Sydney CBD over the last few months.
There has been a steady stream of new cases of COVID-19 discovered around Sydney over the past month as an outbreak centred on the Crossroads Hotel in Casula has seeded several new clusters.
During July, more than 350 new cases of COVID-19 were announced in Sydney.
“The onset of COVID-19 in Australia forced a long lockdown of the country during April, May and June, and the effort was largely successful in suppressing the virus from large parts of the country," says Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan.
"Just when Australians thought we had got on top of COVID-19 after a lockdown period extending from April until early June the virus has returned, with a devastating second wave forcing renewed restrictions around Australia:
“However the second wave of COVID-19, which began with hotel quarantine breaches in Melbourne in late May and early June, has caused a new lockdown in the southern city and restrictions to be re-imposed on restaurants and licensed establishments in Sydney and other cities around the country.
“As Sydney attempts to contain the viral outbreaks the NSW Government is hopeful a return to a full lockdown won’t be necessary. The decline in movement seen in the Sydney CBD during the latter half of July shows Sydneysiders are taking the evolving situation seriously."
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