Tabitha Lavacot, right, and Steve Haase, foreground, keep an eye on Jacob Haase, 7, Calum Lavacot, 5, and Cameron Blankenship, 4, as they look out of the train at the Tennessee Valley Railroad.With less than three months until Chattanooga’s tourism season begins in earnest, area attractions are gearing up for what they hope will be another positive year.
Hotel room tax revenue reached an all-time record in 2010, up about 18 percent countywide from 2009, said Bob Doak, president and chief executive of the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“I’m not sure what other industry right now can claim that kind of success,” he said. “That’s certainly one of the ways we measure the success of the tourism industry, is the number of dollars created in hotel revenue. And most of that was due to increased occupancy … meaning more people in hotels, more hotel rooms occupied, which translates into more attraction visits, more restaurant visits.”
Andrea Anderson, executive director of the Chattanooga Hospitality Association, said things should continue to get better as the city moves through the new year. With the help of sporting events, meetings and other group events or festivals, there’s more that goes into the area’s tourism industry than the attractions, she said.
“I think one of the things Chattanooga and individuals in charge have done a fantastic job of is continually reinventing ourselves,” Anderson said. “It makes people want to see what you have done now, and when you have events like Riverbend, it not only helps with your lodging, but it also helps with your attractions surrounding that.”