The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ONE YEAR LATER
As travel spending drops, Georgians fifind ways to hit the road.
| hile the pandemic was raging across t he country l ast May, Tucker resident Christina Apodaca hit the road on a cross- country family trip to California, overnighting i n Tennessee, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
It was far difffffffffffferent from h e r e a r l i e r t r i p s . T h e r e was no going out to bars or restaurants or live music. D r i v i n g a l o n g I - 4 0 a l s o brought a slower pace as the family stopped at swimming holes and the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
“We did a lot of picnicking and trail walking in beautiful outdoor places,” Apodaca said.
They eschewed big cities for small towns. In their hotel rooms, she said, “we’d wash our masks every night in the sink and hang them to dry.” At one hotel in Lone Pine, California, her family stayed at one end of the pool and another family stayed at the other.
Many Americans canceled
vacation trips last year while trying to stay safe. Travel spending fell 42% in 2020 as more “staycations” took hold, according to the U.S. Travel Association. U.S. hotels averaged a 44% occupancy rate, a record l ow, according to data provider STR. Passenger counts at Hartsfield- Jackson International Airport plunged 61%.
And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend against traveling after the coronavirus has claimed more than half a million U.S. lives. Only 12% of Americans plan to travel for spring break this year, according to one survey in late February.
But others have been venturing out. With popular foreign destinations off limits amid travel restrictions, many are exploring the great American outdoors. Recreational vehicle rental marketplace Rvshare reported a 650% rise in RV rental bookings early in the pandemic, and bookings remained strong through the winter.
Apodaca was wary of sharing air with strangers, but she faced the task of moving her mother across the country. So she found a way to make it into a vacation, bringing along her two children.
Others just want to get away to take a break from home — even if it’s not that far away.
Ty bee Island has had record bed tax collections since July and finished the year down only 5.8% from its record 2019, according to Visit Tybee, which promotes tourism to the beach destination near Savannah.
Blue Ridge Parkway had more than 14 million visitors in 2020, with more traffic between September and December than in 2019. Cabin rentals have been selling out in the mountain town of Blue Ridge, and other places north of Atlanta like Lake Lanier and Ellijay have seen a steady stream of travelers, according to the state tourism office, Explore Georgia.
Last year was the second busiest year on record for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with more than 12 million visitors, despite it being closed for 46 days in the spring and partial closures through August. Record traffic between August and December damaged roadsides as visitors, confronted by full parking lots, pulled over elsewhere.
Florida beaches, also within a day’s drive for Georgians, have been another
magnet.
Stone Mountain resident Michele Giacobbe stayed inside when the pandemic first hit. But then, “as time went on, we realized this is not something that is going to go away in three or four months, so we’re going to have to try and adapt.”
Giacobbe and her husband have ventured out to Panama City Beach and Destin in recent months.
“In front of the big resorts, you can see everybody packed in,” she said. “You’ve got to go to the sand, take a left or a right and keep walking.”
Buck head travel agent Colette O’ Brien Allen’ s clients in past years took luxury trips to places like France, Italy, Turkey and Egypt. Over the last year, she has sent people on excursions to places like Moab, Utah; Santa Fe, New Mex
ico; and Sun Valley, Idaho, where the biggest draw is the beauty of outdoor landscapes. Such domestic trips also have replaced weekends at the theater in New York, celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans or strolling through museums in Washington, D. C.
Many vacationers appear to be going to places they remember from childhood or “maybe remind them of a simpler time, when life wasn’t as complicated as it is now,” said consumer travel advocate Chris Elliott.
Airbnb said its top booked spaces include full homes, cabin sand cottages that avoid elevators and crowded hotel lobbies — supplanting apartments, villas and townhouses that were popular a year ago.
At the Loews Atlanta Hotel in Midtown, the buzz of business travelers during the workweek is mostly gone and conference halls sit empty. It’s also not full on weekends, but it’s less empty, as some road- tripping vacationers visit Piedmont Park and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. More guests also are getting room service instead of heading to a restaurant, said Paul Puzzanghero, the hotel’s managing director.
At some other hotels, those looking to avoid crowded gyms are finding options like in- room Peloton bikes at properties including the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
Many who travel during the pandemic try to keep a lower profile than in the past, when posting awe- worthy images on social media used to be a raison d’être. In Conde Nast’s Women Who Travel group on Facebook, with more t han 1 50,000 members, one user wrote: “So much travel shaming going on on this platform.” Another user responded, “If you’re going to travel during a GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS don’t post it.”
Giacobbe said she has been open with friends and family about vacationing in Florida, but “some have not been happy with it .” After she returned from a trip to the beach, a friend told her to quarantine for 10 days before they got together.
Some people are quietly taking time away while not taking time off. Airbnb said a survey last year showed 60% of longer- term guests were working or studying during their stays.
Lil burn resident Jason Davis has traveled to Gatlinburg, Orlando, Ormond Beach, Hilton Head and elsewhere during the pandemic, and took in an oceanfront view during a January “workcation” in Virginia Beach.
“As long as I’ve got a computer and I’ve got Wi- Fi, I’ve been good,” he said.
Apodaca, who crossed the U.S. last year, is planning a trip to a lakeside cottage at a Georgia state park once school’s out.
Then, when it’s safer again, she’s looking forward to trips with outings to restaurants and bars.
A bill that would p revent lawsuits against businesses when a worker or customer catches the coronavirus received final approval Tuesday in the Georgia General Assembly.
The st ate Senate voted 36- 17 for the bill, mostly along party lines. Republicans, who hold the majority, said struggling businesses need protections, and Democrats objected because employees would be unable to seek legal relief when unsafe conditions cause illness. Two Democrats, state Sens. Emanuel Jones of Decatur and
Michael “Doc” Rhett of Marietta, voted for the bill.
The legislation, now headed to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature, would extend Georgia’s existing COVID- 19 liability law for another year, until July 2022.
When presenting House Bill 112, Senate Judiciary Chairman Brian Strickland, a Mcdonough Republican, said the legislation balanced the need for businesses and health care professionals to be able to do their jobs without fear of being sued while also ensuring that customers and patients are safe.
“This bill continues to provide stability for our citizens as we navigate another year of COVID- 19,” Strickland said.
Senate Special Judiciary Chairwoman Jen Jordan, an Atlanta Democrat, attempted to amend the bill to allow an employee to seek worker’s comp if he or she contracts COVID- 19 and is injured. The amendment failed.
“If we say we value essential workers, if we say but for them we could not be here, we need to put our proverbial money where our mouth is,” Jordan said.
Under the law, companies are shielded from liability unless they show “gross negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, reckless infliction of harm, or intentional infliction of harm.”