Americans seem more interested in inauguration protests than in the inauguration

On Friday, an estimated 800,000 people are expected to gather around the National Mall in Washington, DC, for Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony. The following day, the Women’s March on Washington — a protest of Trump’s positions on women’s rights — is expected to draw crowds in excess of 200,000.

But for the millions of Americans not attending either event, the protests have seemed to garner much more interest.

According to data provided to Vox by Google, searches for “protest inauguration” have far outranked searches for “attend inauguration” this week:

Comparing this map with the results of the 2016 election presents a stark difference.

In total, 13 states that voted for Trump in November — some deep red states — searched far more for “protest inauguration” this week than for “attend inauguration”: Arizona, Arkansas, Alaska, Michigan, Montana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.

Of course, search data only tells us so much. We should be clear that this is only indicative of what Americans in these states have been most frequently searching for this week. It is not indicative of whether they are interested in joining or supporting protests, or just reading about them.

Still, it is interesting that the majority of people in these 13 Trump-voting states seem more concerned with protests than with the ceremony of the man they elected.

In any case, all the controversy surrounding both events has been good for Washington’s tourism industry: Data that Google sent Vox shows that search interest in DC hotels is 60 percent higher this week than in the week leading up to Obama’s 2013 inauguration — and interest in flights is up 160 percent.