COVID-19’s impact on travel forces hotels to cut staff
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
As people across the state and country are asked to stay in their homes, unemployment continues to swell, especially within the tourism industry.
In Missouri, 307,498 people have filed for unemployment because of COVID-19 as of Thursday at 4 p.m.
Boone County has racked up 7,787 of those claims, while Cole County has seen 2,927 claims related to the coronavirus outbreak.
Click here to view the state COVID-19 unemployment dashboard.
According to the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau, about 11,000 jobs in Boone County are directly tied to the tourism industry. There are direct and indirect impacts on hotel and restaurant workers, who work at museums and attractions, as well as suppliers for the hotel and event industry.
In the state's 2019 fiscal year, there was about $425 million dollars in tourism-related spending in Boone County. Megan McConachie, spokeswoman for the bureau, said this is the time of year they would usually see higher volumes of visitors coming to Columbia.
"Pretty much any tourism that we typically expect throughout the spring and summer has just completely turned upside down," McConachie said.
The hold on travel continues to affect small businesses across the country, and McConachie said that in turn can hurt the tourism industry.
"There's always the chance that some of our smaller businesses will close and won't be able to reopen," McConachie said. "For us, that changes just the face of our community both for residents and for people who may want to visit."
The bureau is hopeful it can start looking at a recovery phase soon, but McConachie said it will be lengthy.
"I think one of the most difficult things about this is there's not going to be a switch we can flip and say 'ok, everyone travel,'" McConachie said. "That is going to be something we'll have to contend with for quite a while."
Hotels are one of the hardest-hit industries financially during this crisis. National data shows that the occupancy of hotels is hovering at around 10 to 20 percent. McConachie said Columbia is usually around 50 to 60 percent this time of year.
Heather Hargrove, the general manager of the Stony Creek Inn in Columbia, said they have had to furlough 32 employees because of the COVID-19 crisis. She said one of the hotel's daily focus' is to bring back the entire team.
"Will everyone be able to be brought back at once, or will it be a stair step? That's kind of the question right now," Hargrove said. "It depends on what the reopening of our community, our county and surrounding states looks like."
Hargrove said many hotels have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in canceled events and reservations with the restrictions on travel in place. A main concern for her is the financial health of the University of Missouri, as events like graduation and sports bring people in from all over.
"Their finanical health will effect all of us as well," Hargrove said.
McConachie said the tourism industry is usually the first to be hit in times of crisis. And while rebounding may be a slow process, data is showing searches for travel is up amoung consumers.
"While everyone is home, there is definitely going to be some pent-up demand," she said. "People are at least thinking about it, even if they can't do it right now."
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