Georgia tourism business bouncing again from pandemic heading into summer season | Enterprise

ATLANTA – When the coronavirus pandemic hit Georgia last March, no industry closed harder or faster than the hospitality industry.

The leisure and hospitality sector lost 223,000 jobs nationwide between February and April 2020.

In Atlanta, hotel occupancy dropped from 74% in February of last year to just 9% in April.

“We’re a convention city,” said William Pate, President and CEO of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Suddenly the conventions were canceled.”

“We lost half of March, all of April, and most of May,” added Joe Marinelli, president of Visit Savannah, the city’s tourism promotion agency. “Losing those months has been difficult for us.”

But as the second day of remembrance of the COVID-19 era approaches, and with it the start of the summer vacation season, the signs point to a recovery in tourism.

“We’re picking up again,” said Mark Jaronski, Deputy Commissioner of the Georgian Ministry of Economic Development, who is responsible for the agency’s tourism department. “The introduction of the vaccine was the most positive impact on our visit.”

Even in the worst of days, the pandemic didn’t hurt the Georgian tourism industry as much as it did other states.

Jaronski attributed the comparatively minor impact of Governor Brian Kemp’s decision not to shut down the Georgian economy entirely when he provided shelter in April 2020.

“Because we stayed open, we could do better than the national average and many states,” he said.

While conventions, concerts and sporting events were closed, the Georgians ventured into the mountains of northern Georgia and the beaches of the state within a few weeks of Kemp’s orders.

“People wanted to stay away from crowds and large group gatherings,” Jaronski said. “You have been advised by health professionals and opinion leaders to stay away from groups, but maybe it’s okay to go to the beaches or mountains.”

There were even some success stories during the pandemic. As the isolation of camping skyrocketed recreational vehicle sales, visits to state parks increased.

During fiscal 2020, which ran through late June last year, visits to state parks rose to 11.8 million, an increase of 562,000 from the previous year. The campsite occupancy improved from 13% to 46%.

“Last year was quite a busy year,” said Kim Hatcher, spokeswoman for the parks, recreation and historic sites division of the Georgian Ministry of Natural Resources. “The occupancy has definitely increased, mainly for camping.”

With the continued popularity of the beaches and mountains, the state’s leisure and hospitality industries had regained 144,000 of the 223,000 jobs lost by the pandemic by March this year, 65% of the total, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

Even more convention-dependent cities have started recovering from the pandemic.

Marinelli said weekend visits from vacationers picked up again in mid-June last year and advanced sharply into the summer.

“Vacation travel is a big winner right now,” he said. “Since Savannah is a vacation destination, we’re in luck.”

According to Godfather, Atlanta is forecasting a similar increase in vacation travel this summer.

To complete the recovery, the state has launched a new marketing campaign targeting pandemic-weary Americans’ pent-up demand for travel.

The campaign conjures up the image of a sprinter wrapped around the start line. Instead of “Done. To adjust. Come on, ”is the slogan“ Done. To adjust. Georgia.”

Jaronski said the new campaign targets the growing number of Americans who plan to travel longer distances than last year, either by car or by plane.

“Last year we focused almost entirely on in-state travelers,” he said. “Now we’re expanding beyond Georgia to neighboring states and places like New York, Chicago and Miami.”

Along with the Georgia Travel Guide’s annual update, the State Tourism Department has $ 1 million in grants earmarked for tourism marketing in Kemp’s half-yearly budget.

Jaronski said half of that money will go to tourism promotion agencies across Georgia, which depend on hotel-motel tax revenues, a source of funding that has been severely depleted by the pandemic.

Pate said sales for the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau were down 65% this year.

“It had a significant impact on CVB revenues across the state,” he said.

Jaronski said the other half of the state grant will go to individual hospitality companies affected by the pandemic, including hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions.

Tourism projections show that Georgia’s convention business will be the last to recover.

Godfather said Atlanta had a “very strong” convention calendar booked for the latter half of this year.

Marinelli said many of the conventions originally slated for Savannah last year or early this year have been postponed to late this year or early 2022.

“People have to return to their home offices beforehand [businesses] Send them on a trip, ”said Jaronski.

Similarly, sporting events are reloaded back into this year’s calendar, including two Chick-Fil-A-Kickoff games over Labor Day weekend at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, around the college football season and the SEC championship game in December to start.

Cobb County recently lost the Major League Baseball all-star game due to be played in Truist Park in July as part of a protest against a controversial election overhaul Kemp signed in March. But Pate said no other planned events threatened to withdraw.

Godfather expects the recovery of tourism to build on itself. As more and more people get outside, confidence will be restored that travel will be safe again, he said.

“Now that vaccines are all but available, people are on the move,” he said. “You want a vacation. You didn’t get one last year. “