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Optimism Reigns as NOVA Reopens
COVER STORY
Optimism reigns as NOVA reopens
BY JONATHAN HUNLEY
Just 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
after the 9/11 attacks and during the 2008 financial crisis combined, Biggar said. He also added that it will take as much as four times longer to recover from pandemic losses than it did to recover from either of those crises.
And yet he remains optimistic that the travel, tourism and hospitality industries will not only recover but prosper. “We will grow,” he said. “No doubt about it at all.” Many will contend that the rise of virtual platforms renders travel unnecessary, he said. But people still need to make personal connections
“They want to get back to traveling, to seeing, to pressing the flesh, to having face-to-face conversations,” he said.
Many probably also want to get back to enjoying live entertainment in person. The pandemic didn’t stop the arts from being made in Northern Virginia, but it did change the way they were presented, at least at one prominent organization.
Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts believes “very strongly” in the core value of striving to be a resource for the community, said its president and CEO, Arvind Manocha. But during the pandemic it was impossible to gather people together for traditional concerts.
“That being said, with the help of our many thousands of members and supporters, we were able to continue to find ways to deliver the arts in homes, phones and classrooms,” Manocha said.
For example, Wolf Trap continued its work with educators in Fairfax County and across the country, although in a different manner.
“As the early childhood community pivoted to providing instruction remotely, Wolf Trap was able to do the same, continuing our partnerships with school systems near and far via digital platforms,” Manocha said.
Wolf Trap Opera, meanwhile, “forged ahead” with plans to bring the best young talent from across the country to Vienna, he said. The program, based on an artist residency model, created an NBA-style “bubble,” the only effort of its kind in the nation to do so. Instead of the singers performing in front of live audiences, they created a digital summer season that was streamed online and viewed by thousands of opera fans.
The foundation also teamed with some of its favorite local artists to commission a series of “pop-up” concerts at Wolf Trap National Park, captured under exacting COVID protocols and streamed once a week on wolftrap.org.
“It was important to us to make sure that music was made in our nation’s national park for the arts, and that our fans and supporters had the opportunity to connect with the park from the comfort and safety of their own home,” Manocha said.
Not having fans in the seats in Vienna, however, took its toll. The foundation’s annual budget is based on a mix of earned revenue from items such as ticket sales and contributed income from members and other philanthropic organizations. But during the pandemic, Wolf Trap saw its earned revenue, like everyone’s in the live music sector, reduced to zero.
Manocha said he and his staff are grateful for the community support that allowed for the creation of digital programs and a plan to return to holding events post-pandemic. The first phase of re-opening, which began last month and will end in early August, allows for reduced-capacity concerts. From there, the organization will return to hosting live music just like it did in the old days.
As Northern Virginia continues to grow, so do entertainment options and amenities, Manocha said. New additions to the venue landscape mean more choices for residents and will bring even more focus on the region as a destination.
“I feel very strongly about the future,” he added. “I think as we continue to come out of the pandemic we are reminded of just how much we miss our friends and families, of how much we miss enjoying great artistic experiences with them.”
