TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – A business boom comes to Tallahassee this spring after Florida State University announced Thursday that the personal start will take place.
The FSU will hold eleven ceremonies over two weekends in April.
Students are ready to party, and businesses look forward to more traffic in Tallahassee.
Since the conclusion is now planned in the Civic Center, the hotels informed WCTV that the rooms are already fully booked. Restaurants and cafes say they are preparing for not just one but two busy weekends.
There is already a lot of activity in the local hotels.
“It was a welcome sound to hear this attendant ring here at the Hampton Inn & Suites and in every Tallahassee hotel,” said Bo Schmitz, regional manager for Hyatt House and Hampton Inn & Suites.
The new Hyatt House on Railroad Square opened 10 days ago. This news got off to a good start.
“It’s huge,” said Schmitz. “To start with big events that we haven’t had last year, this is critical to our success.”
Other hotels are also seeing the boost.
“As soon as they announced it yesterday, we saw an influx of people into town,” said Jay Green of the Duval Hotel. “Most of the business starts in the meeting. It comes at the last minute, but what is good comes.”
In the past year, companies have not seen the traffic from traditional university events.
“There are no personal tours for campus, there was no personal orientation for the summer,” explained Carolina Niebla, a barista at the Catalina Cafe.
Longstanding Donut Kingdom business also felt the crisis during the pandemic.
“We relied on college and the students and families,” explained the owner, Adam Khalil. “All college activity, but nothing going on for the last year.”
As a parent of college students, Khalil says he is excited to see the celebration.
“We are grateful to the people in the city that they really support us,” he said.
Others say that two weekends event might actually be better than other years, which spreads the wealth.
“It’s going to be a longer period of time for people and their families to graduate so we can do more business this week,” said Niebla.
The spatial celebration also maximizes the use of available Tallahassee hotel rooms.
“We can put them here in any of our Leon County hotels without losing them to the surrounding communities,” Kerri Post said.
Post is the executive director of the Leon County Division of Tourism, also known as Visit Tallahassee. She is optimistic about spring.
“The future is bright!” said post.
Tallahassee Community College told WCTV on Friday that a virtual celebration was planned. It will include a celebration video and a personalized celebration package. Visit the college’s website for more information Here.
The FAMU says they are still evaluating what they are going to do, whether in person or virtually.
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