COVER STORY
Optimism reigns as NOVA reopens BY J O N AT H A N H U N L E Y
J
ust like everyone else, those in the tourism and entertainment industries in Northern Virginia had to make some big changes to adapt to life in a world with COVID-19. They literally had to alter the way they did business. But now that masks are being shed and rules becoming less strict, they’re expecting not just to survive but to thrive, to see not only a return to normalcy but also growth. When the pandemic hit, Visit Fairfax, the destination marketing organization for the county, “completely reversed” what it usually does, said Barry H. Biggar, the agency’s president and chief executive officer. Instead of promoting the locality to potential tourists as a place for vacations, meetings, sporting events and the like, the staff began marketing to residents. For example, it worked with major attractions in the county on virtual tours and helped restaurants let local folks know about opportunities for carryout and outdoor dining. And realizing that people weren’t
going to travel here, Visit Fairfax tried to help hotels establish connections with first responders and health-care professionals who might want or need a place to stay other than at home. Now that pandemic fears have eased and Northern Virginia has begun to reopen, the agency is again working to attract travel groups as well as sporting events and leisure visitors. It’s looking specifically at those who wouldn’t come from too far away, say from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the north and North Carolina to the south. It will take more time for business travel, on which Fairfax relies, to resume in force, Biggar said. That means hotels in the county aren’t seeing as much of a return to the routine as those in other regions, with occupancy rates continuing to be less than 50%. From March to December last year, revenue at hotels in Fairfax was down $525 million from the previous year, Biggar said. So many hoteliers had to defer payments on lots of items, including utilities, mortgages, leases and capital
improvements. “The hotel industry, particularly, has been hit hard,” he added. Restaurants, on the other hand, are back to 80% to 90% of pre-pandemic sales, Biggar said, but they also have deferred payments, so that doesn’t translate to profits. In addition, the tourism, travel and hospitality industries are facing a workforce shortage, he said, as some of the unemployed are earning more from government safety nets than they would if they went back to work. As a result, hotels and restaurants are being forced to raise hourly wages to entice employees. In 2019, tourism contributed $27 billion to the overall state economy, according to the Virginia Tourism Corp. But last year, during the pandemic, the industry lost $10 billion. Bottom line: The economic recovery of the state and the nation will depend on the recovery of the travel, tourism and hospitality sector, Biggar said. The loss of travel dollars from the pandemic is greater than what was lost
THE BUSINESS VOICE
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SUMMER 2021
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