Columbia events draw thousands, resulting in an economic boost for businesses
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The University of Missouri's 2021 graduation and the True/False Film Festival are bringing more people to Columbia this weekend, resulting in more traffic for businesses.
Mizzou commencements began yesterday honoring 5,547 students through a series of events continuing into next weekend. Each graduate was given six tickets to give to friends and family for the events. This means an additional 33,282 people could be visiting the area.
Judy Milliano is among those graduates that has welcomed her family to the area for this weekend. "With all the people out it's starting to feel like the old Columbia," said Milliano.
The annual True/False Film Festival in Columbia also started Wednesday and runs through Sunday. In a normal year, the festival usually draws more than 15,000 people. This year, organizers are only expecting about 2,000 to 3,000 people.
Milliano said this is still more than the area has been able to do for the past year during the pandemic.
Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau spokesperson Megan McConachie said this is the first weekend in a while that Columbia is experiencing several in-person events at one time with the combination of the T/F Festival, Mizzou graduation, and the addition of Mother's Day.
McConachie said this will be a huge benefit for restaurants, hotels, and other businesses after a hard year through the pandemic.
Richard Walls, manager at The Heidelberg, said the reservation books have been filled this weekend.
Walls said he has also seen a lot of regular customers coming out recently that were more hesitant to at the beginning of the pandemic. He's comfortable with the number of people because of the low case numbers and the fact that most of his staff has been fully vaccinated.
McConachie said last year was a demonstration of how important tourism is to the community. "When people visit from outside, the money that they spend in local businesses helps support jobs. The taxes that people pay and the time they spend here that has a positive effect on the quality of life that we get to enjoy as residents," said McConachie.
Hotels do have higher occupancy rates this weekend than they have recently. The Drury Plaza Hotel Columbia East is at 70% occupancy Saturday. A spokesman for the hotel attributed more than half of these reservations towards graduation and the festival.
The Tiger Hotel is also around 70% occupancy for Saturday and The Broadway Columbia is sitting at 90% occupancy.
"Hotels are definitely filling up quicker for these festival weekends than they have been. It's been a really rough year for hospitality businesses and they're still working on getting staffed up and training new staff, but they are definitely seeing an increase in business," said McConachie.
Although these events usually attract a larger number of people, McConachie said the events are important to start getting Mid-Missouri's economy back on track after the pandemic.
