‘Nine times worse than 9/11’
The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a major blow to the state’s tourism, the president of a travel industry nonprofit told an Assembly committee recently.
“It has been nine times worse than 9/11 for us,” Visit California’s Caroline Beteta said during the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media hearing last Wednesday.
She told the committee that the industry will not return to 2019 levels until at least 2024.
She said the pandemic has hurt an industry that employed 1.2 million people before COVID-19, and that its impact on tourism was especially hard in rural areas.
“In our rural counties throughout California, (tourism) is the number one or two employer,” she said. “Given the wane of extractive industries, it is missioncritical for our rural areas where much of our crisis has been experienced.”
Both Humboldt and Mendocino counties depend heavily on the tourism industry and have seen a significant drop in jobs.
The leisure and hospitality industry in Humboldt County lost 100 jobs between August and September, according to figures released Friday by the Employment Development Department.
“This is the time of year when leisure and hospitality would lose some jobs,” he said, but compared with last year, there is a difference of 900 fewer jobs.
“If you look at last September, there were 5,700 people employed,” labor market consultant Randy Weaver said Friday, noting the stark difference of 4,800 employed in September 2020. “Even though they saw some rebound, it looks like a lot of the seasonal hiring may have not occurred.”
According to Visit California travel data, the North Coast region’s revenue dropped more than 41% between August 2019 and August 2020.
Beteta said the projection for California’s tourism industry to recover by 2024 depended on a second round of stimulus for residents that has not materialized and a projection that a COVID-19 would be available soon.
“These figures don’t even account for the recent layoffs of Disney or the recent job reductions,” she said. “… (California is) the number 1 travel destination and when we are hit, we are hit hard.”
Across the state in 2019, visitors spent $144.9 billion in California travel. This year. the revenue is projected
to dip to $66.1 billion in spending. The job outlook has shifted from a 1.2 million strong industry to an estimated 594,000 jobs.
“Many of these jobs will not come back once we are out of this state of emergency,” said Emellia Zamani, the director of government affairs and public policy for the California Travel Association.
She noted she is working with legislative leaders, including with North Coast
state Sen. Mike McGuire and other “tourism champions” “a $45 million allocation” to Visit California’s marketing efforts.
She said a similar allocation after 9/11 was successful and helped tourism be “one of the fastest industries to recover.”
“The profound economic disruption caused by the pandemic has been felt by all sectors of our economy, but the tourism industry is bearing more of a burden than most,” said Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton), said. “As California’s post-pandemic future begins to take shape, reviving our tourism and travel industry will play a vital role in restarting the economy and empowering the state.”
Video of the hearing can be found at https://bit.ly/3jdoUJ8.