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Local hospitality industry shows healthy recovery Santa Barbara County performing better than other areas By FORREST MCFARLAND NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
The Santa Barbara County hospitality industry is recovering faster than the rest of Southern California. After overall unemployment peaked at around 14% in April 2020, the hospitality industry looked exceptionally grim. Leisure and hospitality jobs were down around 50% at the start of this year compared to 2020. With the addition of corporate travelers disappearing due to restrictions, tourism for both business and pleasure were both
plummeting. According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the hotel industry will finish 2021 down more than $59 billion in business travel revenue from 2019 after losing nearly $49 billion in business travel revenue in 2020. However, Santa Barbara County bounced back at a surprising rate. “Compared to other vacation destinations in the state, the South Coast’s recovery continues to outpace our competitors,” Kathy Janega-Dykes, president and CEO of Visit Santa Barbara, told the News-Press.
Visit Santa Barbara reported that, by this summer, hotels in the county outperformed competitors throughout Southern California. Mrs. Janega-Dykes told the News-Press that, while international travel faded to a negligible percentage, “leisure travel by Californians remains robust, exceeding many of our earlier predictions.” This tourism from Californians allowed for the South Coast to recover rapidly compared to the rest of the state. Santa Barbara County continued to move forward with projects that fueled the momentum behind restorative tourism.
“Recent improvements to air service at Santa Barbara Airport continue to give Santa Barbara a strategic advantage with lower costs, increased convenience and more seats available for residents and visitors alike,” Mrs. Janega-Dykes told the News-Press. The summer as well as various holidays quickly raised occupancy and made the coast of Santa Barbara shine. “Based on the most recent four week period, occupancy was at 77%, compared to 61% in 2020 and 75% in 2019,” Mrs. Janega-Dykes cited for the News-Press. As the holiday season approaches,
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Visit Santa Barbara is anticipating this momentum to continue for the rest of the year. “Many Santa Barbara businesses and organizations are planning unique holiday events and celebrations that we expect visitors will enjoy,” Mrs. JanegaDykes noted. With the anticipation of local businesses and COVID-19 cases trending downward, the positive performance of tourism in Santa Barbara County is likely to continue through the year. email: fmcfarland@newspress.com
Federal court puts private sector vaccine mandate on hold By DAN MCCALEB THE CENTER SQUARE EXECUTIVE EDITOR
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS
The Santa Barbara High Golden Tornado storms onto the field before the team’s 49-14 loss against Newport Harbor in the quarterfinals of the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs at Peabody Stadium on Friday. The home team was shut out by the Sailors in the second half as their season ended tonight. See page A5 for more photos.
Elings Park gets support for trail improvements Trek Foundation helps efforts By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Over the next 20 years, Elings Park’s nine miles of trails will be improved, expanded and sustained thanks to the financial support of the Trek Foundation. The local SAGE Trail Alliance will begin work later this month. The alliance has provided trail stewardship for decades. The stewardship includes trail maintenance and construction. “Due to mud, people have put in ruts and erosion after rains, and trails
have been amended to change grade and help the water run-off. Some trails are user-created, so old trails will be denaturalized and redesigned,” SAGE Executive Director Dillion Osleger told the News-Press. The donation will also cover the creation of a trail map covering the entire park, which will be made available to the public for free and featured on two new information kiosks. The new trail map will be made available to the public in a digital format and on several new map kiosks that are being constructed by SAGE
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Trek Bicycle was founded by John and Tania Burke. Mr. Burke is the CEO of Trek Bicycle, and Ms. Burke is the CEO of Trek Travel. “One of the requirements for the grant is actively pursuing more youth mountain biking, which will be in partnership with NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association),” Mr. Noble said. Elings Park is one of four initial projects funded by the Trek Foundation. The project met funding criteria designed to ensure Please see PARK on A6
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with funding from the donation. “We have experienced an explosion of trail use due to the COVID-19 quarantine and the growth in the popularity of mountain biking. This generous funding will take our trails from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ and also benefits the park’s many walkers and hikers who share the trails with cyclists,” said Dean Noble, Elings Park’s executive director. The Trek Foundation was founded in July 2021 by Trek Bicycle, a global leader in the manufacture and design of bicycles and bicycle-related products.
(The Center Square) — A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the Biden administration to stop implementation of its private sector vaccine mandate until multiple legal challenges work their way through the court system. The ruling, from the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, comes in response to dozens of lawsuits filed by coalitions of states, business groups and individuals in response to President Joe Biden’s orders requiring American workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, agree to regular testing or lose their jobs. “The Fifth Circuit’s decision to put a stop to the Biden Administration’s illegal vaccine mandate is a huge win for liberty and cements the reality that this mandate is an overreach by the federal government that would cause irreversible damage to American businesses and workers,” Sarah Harbison, general counsel at the Louisianabased Pelican Institute for Public Policy, said in a statement. The Pelican Institute and Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center are representing businessman Brandon Trosclair, who owns 15 grocery stores in Louisiana and Mississippi, employing nearly 500 people. Under President Joe Biden’s direction, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration last week released details of the private sector vaccine mandate, which seeks to require private employers with 100 or more workers to provide proof they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing. The mandate, which could affect an estimated 100 million American workers, includes a Jan. 4 deadline for vaccination. The policy also would impose nearly $14,000 in fines per employee if businesses are caught letting their workers skirt the mandate. “Today’s ruling marks a tremendous success because the court recognizes how this mandate would impair our liberty and infringe on our constitutional rights,” Mr. Trosclair said in a statement provided by Liberty Justice Center. “I am proud to be in this fight on behalf of not just my employees, but all Americans. It’s wrong for the federal government to order me to interfere in the private medical decisions of my team members or to impose insurmountable costs on my businesses.” The Fifth Circuit last Saturday issued a temporary stay on the private sector vaccine mandate, citing “grave” constitutional concerns. In it’s Friday’s ruling, a three judge panel of the court added to its concerns. “The Mandate threatens to substantially burden the liberty interests of reluctant individual recipients put to a choice between their job(s) and their jab(s),” the panel wrote. It ordered that the private sector mandate “remains stayed pending adequate judicial review Please see MANDATE on A4
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Wedsnesday’s SUPER LOTTO: 7-15-17-45-46 Mega: 7
Friday’s DAILY 4: 2-1-9-3
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