SPRINGFIELD – Hotel, restaurant and convention industry officials told a Senate committee Thursday that they need a clear plan for reopening if the COVID-19 pandemic wears off, warning that without such a plan, many will run out of business permanent.
“We need to know … a strategy, we need to know the metrics if we are going forward because we can’t, we can’t lose another summer here in Illinois,” said Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association Das newly formed Senate Tourism and Hospitality Committee during its first virtual hearing.
The committee was founded this year by Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, because the state’s tourism industry has been hardest hit by the pandemic.
Currently, all regions of the state are in phase 4, which limits private gatherings to no more than 50 people. However, Toia argued that many restaurants are able to safely treat larger numbers of people, and he said there should be a more specific plan that would allow bars, restaurants and hotels to gradually move from phase 4 to phase 5, which will be fully reopened.
“We just want to know when we can return to conventions, parties and private parties to find out when we can have some fans in stadiums. It’s very, very unclear, ”he said. “And we just want to adjust to what phase 5 will look like. I don’t think we can wait 12 to 18 months. “
Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association, agreed, saying that without such a plan, hotels could lose not just another season but another year as well.
“What our industry needs is clarity,” he said. “Meeting planners are currently planning for events that have been booked this summer and beyond. … Due to the time these planners book in advance, we cannot address these limitations on a daily basis. Otherwise, we risk months and months of future business to leave our state. And once a meeting leaves Illinois, it becomes much harder to convince that host to return to our state. “
Jacobson said the statewide average occupancy for Illinois hotels was only 27% in December, roughly half the previous year. This compared to a nationwide average occupancy of 37%.
During a period of one week in January, the occupancy rate of hotels in Chicago fell by 84% compared to a comparable week in 2019.
“It has become clear that we will be among the last industries to recover from this disaster. In fact, we don’t expect a recovery to pre-pandemic levels until 2024 at the earliest, ”Jacobson said. “And that assumes that the recovery here accelerates in the next few months.”
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Toia and Jacobson both noted that other states are enacting plans to gradually reopen companies with ever larger group boundaries. Both also argued that workers in these industries should be prioritized for vaccination.
Under the Restore Illinois reopening plan, the state cannot move into Phase 5 unless “testing, tracking, and treatment are widespread across the state. Either a vaccine is being developed to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, a treatment option is available that will ensure health care capacity is no longer an issue, or there are no new cases for a long time. “
Toia and Jacobson argued that with vaccines now ubiquitous and the greatly slowed rate at which the disease has spread, it is time that the government made more specific plans for how and when the state can move into Phase 5. The state’s rolling seven-day case positivity rate on Thursday was 2.7%, its lowest level since early July.
Senator Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, noted that Republicans wrote a letter to the Illinois Department of Health director Dr, after a meeting of the Senate Health Committee earlier this week. Ngozi Ezike, asking them to indicate what is “generally available” and “sustainable” period. “
Committee chair Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, said the committee would consider this letter and any response from the administration.
“Our goal is to develop a safe plan to bring tourists to hotels, restaurants and our cultural institutions,” Feigenholtz said in a statement after the meeting. “There is a way to do this safely, and Illinois will have to look at other states’ modeling and metrics to fuel a struggling industry.”
