Report: State hospitality jobs struggling to recover from pandemic

Connecticut has known for months the coronavirus hit its hospitality industry harder than those in most other states.

Now it’s learned things are worse than many thought.

According to revised projections from the American Hotel & Lodging Association, Connecticut will have regained — by year’s end — slightly less than 72 percent of the 26,225 direct hotel industry jobs it lost during the pandemic.

Those 7,400 unfilled jobs is significantly worse than the 5,900-position-gap the AHLA forecast for Connecticut back in May.

“The pandemic has been devastating to the hospitality industry workforce, wiping out 10 years of hotel job growth,” the association wrote, adding that the hotels and other lodgings are expected to end 2021 down 500,000 jobs compared with 2019 employment levels.

Direct hotel jobs, such as housekeeper and front desk attendants, do not include workers from restaurants, retail operations, tourist attractions and other small businesses supported by the lodging industry.

Only four states — Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York — along with the District of Columbia, are projected to have regained a smaller percentage of direct hotel jobs than Connecticut will have by year’s end.

“We are still facing incredible challenges,” said Ginny Kozlowski, executive director of the Connecticut Hotel and Lodging Association.

Perhaps the biggest, she said, is regaining the full contingent of business travelers who comprised 60 percent of the customer base at Connecticut hotels, motels and bed and breakfast operations before the pandemic.

Vacation and other leisure-related travel has recovered well this summer, though there still some work to do, Kozlowski said. But business-related travel has lagged considerably.

For example, are many companies going to permanently limit their conventions, retreats and planning meetings?

Will salespeople who normally visit their customers four or five times a year now do it just once — and stay in touch the rest of the time via online conferencing?

“That’s where we’re not sure,” Kozlowski said.

Another unknown pressing the industry is the coronavirus itself.

Kozlowski praised Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration for Connecticut’s strong effort to promote vaccinations. As of Monday, 71 percent of residents age 12 and older were fully vaccinated.

And she noted the governor and legislature have been supportive in other ways.

Between the new, two-year state budget and federal coronavirus relief funding, Connecticut officials have dedicated more than $60 million in new resources that will assist tourism promotion and the hospitality sector.

David Lehman, Lamont’s economic development commissioner, said a portion of those resources also will support a new grant program to assist hospitality and related businesses. That program likely will be unveiled early in 2022, he said.