BCS hospitality lost $78 million in revenue during pandemic

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Perhaps, tourism has been one of the industries that have been hit by the ill impacts of COVID in the hardest way across the nation. Destination Bryan and Visit College Station continue to learn to find the way to the changes to their industry.

“We’ve been trying to adjust to all the changes here in 2020 and trying to figure out what’s the right way to attack tourism and keep it going and active going into 2021,” said Dominique Powell, Director of Compete College Station & Visit Casper.

The hospitality sector in Bryan-College Station has been affected badly. As per the S.T.R report, through September 2020, year-over-year the local hotel industry has lost around $78 million in revenue, which is just under 50%.

To quote Noel Mayes, vice president of the Brazos Valley Hospitality Association, “We have been more exposed because of what drives demand in our market is travel associated with Texas A&M, travel associated with the State of Texas, travel associated with TEEXs, things along those lines, and there has just been so much less of that in conjunction with 40% to 50% supply growth within the last year.”

As April was the worst hit month for the local hospitality industry, trends shifted somewhat towards the late summer months. “There were a couple of factors that were beneficial in August for the local market. One of those was, it’s very unfortunate for those that live on the coast, but hurricanes can lead to an influx in demand and then dorm move-in,” said Mayes.
John Friebele, executive director of Destination Bryan, have explained that they have started looking beyond 2021 and ways to take the advantage on tourism once it becomes normal.

“80% of people have tentative trips planned for next year. So, from the Bryan perspective how do we capitalize on that? We are already beginning to look at marketing campaigns for the next year, and really just try to leverage as much as we can when people get back to normal,” said Friebele.

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