Visitor Commentary | Santa Cruz County tourism may also help energy America’s financial restoration if Congress acts now – Santa Cruz Sentinel

From Maggie Ivy

As the robust pace of vaccination across the US continues and our local COVID-19 numbers steadily decline, we hope a return to normal is in sight. However, a resurgence in the Santa Cruz County’s travel industry is by no means inevitable.

The hotel occupancy data shows that losses in the accommodation sector were around 30% in 2020.

The impact of COVID-19 on hospitality owners and employees is hard to underestimate. Operating restrictions, closings, and the need to enforce mask mandates and a set of “clean and secure” protocols required nothing less than a reorganization of business practices for local hospitality companies. Many companies had to close permanently. The areas of accommodation, gastronomy and retail are particularly affected.

A non-partisan law has just been passed in Congress that contains essential measures to help get visitors quickly back to Santa Cruz County and our entire region and destinations across the country. This is a necessary step in helping rebuild our local economy: Bipartisan Hospitality and The Commerce Job Recovery Act provides a much-needed boost to restore the millions of travel jobs lost in the pandemic. The bill’s bipartisan co-sponsor includes U.S. Representative Jimmy Panetta, who represents much of the Central Coast, including Santa Cruz County. Visit Santa Cruz County supports this legislation for the good that it will do to encourage Americans to travel, restore jobs, and accelerate broader economic recovery.

Santa Cruz County, like so many Central Coast communities, relies heavily on visitors whose tourism dollars drive our local economy. In 2019, the tenth consecutive year of tourism growth, visitor spending was over $ 1.1 billion for the Santa Cruz County’s economy and supporting over 15,000 local jobs: a source of income generated by the Pandemic has been gutted. Estimates in California show a 30% to 50% loss in tourism spending – an indication of a tens of millions of dollars lost to locally owned businesses and their employees.

The travel and tourism industry is our lifeblood. It’s part of who we are as a community, and its absence over the past year has been tremendously felt in many ways. Tax revenue from visitor spending is a major source of income for Santa Cruz County, and it funds local services such as police, fire departments, roads, libraries, and more. The Accommodation Tax (TOT) alone in 2019 amounted to more than $ 20 million in locally levied taxes. Visitor spending has a direct impact not only on our economy, but also on our local quality of life.

In particular, the Hospitality and Commercial Employment Restoration Act would provide: a temporary corporate tax credit to revitalize business meetings, conferences and conventions; an individual tax credit to stimulate non-business travel; a temporary deduction for entertainment business expenses to aid the recovery of entertainment venues and performing arts centers; and tax breaks for restaurants and food and beverage companies to help restore jobs in the hospitality industry and strengthen the entire American food supply chain.

Without additional aid and incentive measures, it is expected to take at least five years for the travel industry to recover from the economic consequences of the pandemic. It is far too long to wait, especially given the many businesses in our community that are struggling today – and the many that closed last year. This is the biggest challenge facing our industry to date, but with the right guidelines we know that purposeful recovery is within our grasp.

If Congress can do its part, Santa Cruz County’s hotels, restaurants, retail stores, and attractions can recover faster and do what we do best – greet visitors from near and far and offer world-class hospitality.

Maggie Ivy is the CEO of Visit Santa Cruz County.