A new normal for 'New Nashville' tourism

When will Nashville's tourism industry return to normal? Before that question can be answered, we’ll need to figure out what our “normal” is.

"I would suggest that what we were enjoying (before the pandemic) was not only unprecedented, but to a degree, unrealistic,” says Butch Spyridon, CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.

“We defied everybody's logic, expertise, and projections."

Throughout the 2010s – literally, the entire decade – Nashville set new records for visitor numbers, spending and hotel room sales. In 2019, it reached a new high of 16.1 million visitors.

That streak has ended cleanly with the 2020s. In the first week of May, an average of 6,900 rooms were sold per night. One year prior, it was 26,000.

But for now, “very few” Nashville conventions have been canceled from mid-September to mid-December, Spyridon says.

“If conventions can start to meet in some capacity this fall, we'll be in great shape. If they can't, then that's a different animal.”

At any rate, the city’s image is in for a temporary makeover. The crowds that packed our rejuvenated Lower Broadway for big events had become Nashville’s new calling card.

It peaked with last year’s NFL Draft – commentators raved at the sea of humanity that stretched for six blocks, with thousands more watching from crowded rooftops.

“There never has been a scene like this for any draft in any sport, ever,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said at the time. “Nashville’s insane.”

Earlier this year, another scene from a crowded Lower Broadway was sounding alarms. On March 15, a video of a packed Nashville honky-tonk spread quickly through Twitter, earning 7 million views. Within 24 hours, all of the city’s bars were ordered to close.

As the city has begun its phased reopening, live music returned to those rooms on Memorial Day – with a maximum of two performers on stage. But large-scale gatherings remain on hold.

Nashville’s annual 4th of July concert – the original event to annually bring big crowds to Lower Broadway – has been canceled. Instead, a “minimal” fireworks display will air on local TV to honor local healthcare workers and first responders.

The city’s famed “Grand Ole Opry” radio show has played on without a live audience for the last two months, but tickets are on sale for shows at the Opry House starting July 1.

The Opry is one of several key tourism pieces owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties, along with Gaylord Opryland and the Ryman Auditorium. The company has teamed with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which will serve as “official wellness advisor” during their phased reopening.

“It's going to be difficult, but I'm an optimist in the sense that what Nashville has to offer is really, frankly, one of a kind in the United States,” CEO Colin Reed said in a May 21 webinar. “And if we collectively do a good job in communicating to the consumer that when they come here, they can have fun, but in a safe environment, I think that we can build this market back over the next 12 months….It’s going take us some time. That's what I think the challenges are, but I do believe, as a city, we're up for it.”

“If you're talking about getting back to these enormous rates, occupancy, profitability, that is going to take some time,” Spyridon says. “And we may never see that level again, because it was, by anybody's estimate, somewhat unrealistic…We outperformed on every metric over a nine-year period. You can't sustain that. But you can sustain a really good run. And we will. We'll get that back.”