PANDEMIC Hooray! Hollywood tourism rebounds
Hollywood is bouncing back.
After weathering a sharp downturn in tourism, temporary business closures, stay-at-home orders and a host of pandemic-related safety restrictions, business is picking up, although some continue to struggle.
A second-quarter 2021 report from The Hollywood Partnership shows a nearly 50% increase in hotel occupancy compared with the prior three months, and a 164% rise in pedestrian traffic.
The partnership manages the city’s PropertyBased Improvement District, which stretches along the world-famous Walk of Fame and spans Hollywood Boulevard from the LaBrea Avenue Gateway on the west to the 101 Freeway to the east.
“Though we are not entirely out of the woods yet, we can see the clearing through the trees,” partnership President and CEO Kristopher Larson said. “The past three months have delivered a litany of good news stories and other indications for enthusiasm about the road ahead.”
Larson said pedestrian traffic is rapidly rebounding in Hollywood, bringing visitors from not only the region but from the entire country.
“We track cellphone data on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” he said. “We use a tool called placer.ai, which contracts with a bunch of different apps. It’s not perfect, but it does show that more than 60% of visitors to the Walk of Fame are coming from out of the area.”
The report’s secondquarter data shows the highest level of Metro rail ridership since the onset of the pandemic. Metro subway ridership increased by 16% on weekdays and by 23% on Saturdays and Sundays compared with first-quarter ridership estimates.
The report also shows demand for hotel rooms in Hollywood was up 74% during the second quarter of 2021 and up 233% from a year earlier during the worst days of the pandemic.
Five new hotels are under construction in the Hollywood Entertainment District, a 12-block area along Hollywood Boulevard that’s recognized for its historical significance. Those projects will add 830 additional hotel rooms.
The frame for the 134room Whiskey Hotel, just north of Hollywood Boulevard, has quickly taken shape, the partnership said, and a new Hyatt hotel on Cahuenga Boulevard recently secured a $27 million bridge loan to continue construction.
Other hotels in the pipeline include the Godfrey Hotel, Thompson Hotel and Tommie Hotel.
Larson acknowledged Hollywood is still digging its way out of an unprecedented downturn.
“When the pandemic began last year, we saw the most severe dip ever in pedestrian counts,” he said. “It was an eerie place. People just didn’t come out.”
Performance venues took some of the heaviest hits, Larson said, but such venues as the Hollywood Bowl now have full 2021 schedules.
The partnership’s report bodes well for Hollywood’s recovery, although some businesses are still struggling.
“We were closed for about 21/2 months last year, and our sales dropped by 90%,” said Maria Cruz, general manager for Hollywood Souvenirs. “We’re slowly picking up, but now that people are going back to school, we seem to be taking another dive.”
The shop, which sells everything from T-shirts, trophies and key chains, to Marilyn Monroe cutouts, gift baskets and customizable Walk of Fame stars, is also looking to boost its staffing.
“We’ve tried to call most of our employees back, but some just aren’t coming back to work,” Cruz said. “With COVID, they’re still afraid to get close to customers who aren’t wearing masks, and others are on unemployment and may be making more money that way.”
Stout Burgers and Beers has fared better.
The North Cahuenga Boulevard brewpub continued to offer outdoor and takeout service during the pandemic, and it also has on-site parking, which many Hollywood businesses don’t have, according to General Manager Justin Davis.
“I think businesses that weren’t able to offer outdoor service because they didn’t have room struggled more because a lot of customers just figured they were closed,” he said. “The delta variant might be responsible for a little bit of a slowdown for us the last week or two, but our business has mostly remained steady.”