CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland’s hospitality industry, devastated by the coronoavirus pandemic, might not fully recover until 2024, according to a new study commissioned by Destination Cleveland.
The study, by travel-focused research firm Tourism Economics, also predicts that visits to the Cleveland region will be down anywhere from 47% to 67% in 2020 from record high visitation in 2019. And travel-related spending will drop 56% to 75%.
David Gilbert, president and CEO of Destination Cleveland, called the forecast discouraging but not surprising. He also said there is reason for hope.
“We’re already in a comeback,” he said, citing slowly rising hotel-occupancy rates and bed-tax collections. “We’ve hit bottom, and we’re coming back.”
Still, said Gilbert, the next several months will be challenging, as the Cleveland tourism economy heads into the winter months – typically the quietest time of the year for the industry – with COVID 19 numbers spiking across the country.
“I think the next six months will still have significant uncertainty,” Gilbert said. But he hopes that by the second half of 2021 – with the likely introduction of a vaccine and additional treatments – that the travel outlook locally and nationally will improve significantly.
He believes that Cleveland will be in a position to recover relatively quickly, compared to other places, in part because of how well the region has done in recent years to boost its visitor numbers.
Destination Cleveland reported Tuesday that 19.6 million people visited Cuyahoga County in 2019 for business and leisure travel, an increase of 2.1% over the year before, and a record.
For the ninth consecutive year, visitation to Cuyahoga County grew at a rate faster than the rest of the country. Visitors spent $6.4 billion, up 3.3% over a year before.
Nationwide, visitation grew 1.1% in 2019, according to Tourism Economics.
Gilbert said that the success that Cleveland tourism was experiencing pre-pandemic should not evaporate once the coronavirus crisis is over.
“If you have a travel and tourism business, Cleveland is a really good place to be,” he said. “We should still be in that good place when we come back. It’s a positive place to start from when we look at our recovery.”
How long will that recovery take?
Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, says between three and four years. “As a health crisis combined with an economic crisis, it will take longer for the travel and tourism industry to recover than its resurgence following the Great Recession of 2008,” he said. “Consumer services involving social contact, such as restaurants and live entertainment, will face a much steeper recovery timeline than other sectors that can more easily accommodate social distancing.”
Gilbert said it is his agency’s intention to beat that prediction.
“Can we be back sooner? To me, that’s what our goal is.”
To that end, Destination Cleveland recently launched its first out-of-market campaign since March, when the pandemic brought travel to a standstill.
The campaign, dubbed Roam the Land, is geared toward residents of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio who have already expressed an interest and intent to travel. The campaign uses advertising and social media to encourage a Cleveland road trip.
The campaign also highlights local businesses that are participating in Destination Cleveland’s Clean Committed program, which promotes hotels, restaurants and attractions that are adhering to safety protocols.
Destination Cleveland itself has not been immune from the economic fallout of the tourism industry’s collapse. The agency, which gets almost all of its operating revenue from hotel taxes, last month laid off nearly half of its staff.
By the numbers: Cleveland visitor numbers
2019: 19.6 million
2018: 19.2 million
2017: 18.5 million
2016: 18 million
2015: 17.6 million
2014: 16.9 million
2013: 16.2 million
2012: 15.6 million
2011: 14.9 million
2009: 12.9 million
2007: 13.7 million
Note: A visitor is generally defined as someone who travels at least 50 miles from home, and not as part of a normal routine. In 2019, 58% of visitors were day visitors, 42% were overnight visitors. Source: Destination Cleveland
Economic impact: By the numbers
Direct spending on travel and tourism in Cuyahoga County in 2019: $6.4 billion
Total economic impact: $9.7 billion
Number of jobs: 70,000
Employment income: $2.8 billion
Source: Tourism Economics
Greater Cleveland attracted a record 19.2 million visitors in 2018, outpacing Ohio and U.S. growth