When will tourism return to Austin? Experts say full recovery could take years
AUSTIN (KXAN) —When will the tourists return?
That is the question many people in the tourism industry are asking after more than a year of pandemic struggles.
On Wednesday, the Austin Chamber of Commerce and Visit Austin will take a look at the current status of the industry and where it's heading as the city reopens.
With the number of COVID-19 cases declining and more people getting the vaccine, more people are traveling. That's good news for the industry, but the effects of the pandemic will have a long-lasting impact, according to Visit Austin.
"When you look at our tourism numbers, you are starting to see our weekends return to normal and that is great, but we are not seeing Monday through Thursday recovering yet," said Tom Noonan, president of Visit Austin. "Without Monday through Thursday recovering, we are never going to get the hotel tax back to where it was and that impacts lots of folks."
Not only did tourism come to an almost standstill when the pandemic first hit, but many people lost their jobs in the hospitality industry and Visit Austin says it could take until 2024 until we fully recover.
"During the height of the pandemic 70% of the job loss was lost in the hospitality and tourism industry, we are still down 40,000 jobs in hospitality tourism," Noonan said. "Austin can't recover completely until tourism recovers completely."
Visit Austin expects to see some of the major events returning to Austin in late Summer or early fall.
Today's discussion about the current state of the tourism industry will be live online today from 2-3 p.m.