AUSTIN (KXAN) – When will the tourists return?

That is the question many people in the tourism industry are asking themselves after more than a year of fighting pandemic.

On Wednesday, the Austin Chamber of Commerce and Visit Austin will take a look at the current state of the industry and on the road to reopening the city.

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As the number of COVID-19 cases decreases and more people get the vaccine, more people travel. That’s good news for the industry, but the impact of the pandemic will have long-term effects, according to Visit Austin.

“If you look at our tourism stats, you can see that our weekends are getting back to normal and that’s great, but we’re not seeing any recovery Monday through Thursday,” said Tom Noonan, President of Visit Austin. “Without a Monday through Thursday recovery, we’re never going to get hotel tax back where it was, and that’s affecting a lot of people.”

Not only did tourism nearly grind to a halt when the pandemic first hit, but many people lost their jobs in the hospitality industry, and Visit Austin says it could be until 2024 for us to fully recover.

“During the height of the pandemic, 70% of job losses were lost in the hospitality and tourism industries. We still lost 40,000 jobs in hospitality tourism,” Noonan said. “Austin cannot fully recover until tourism has fully recovered.”

Visit Austin expects some of the key events to return to Austin in late summer or early fall.

today discussion The current status of the tourism industry will be online from 2 p.m. today