Chattanooga businesses see travel trends heat up as summer approaches

After the lost year that was 2020, local hotels, restaurants and attractions are seeing an encouraging rebound heading into the traditional kickoff of the summer travel and tourism season.

"The leisure travel has just been on fire ever since spring break," said Mitch Patel, whose Vision Hospitality operates 42 hotels in eight states, with 16 of those in Chattanooga. "We're going to be sold out this weekend. Almost every weekend since the beginning of March, we have been sold out."

Hotel occupancy in the Chattanooga market in April 2021 surpassed April 2019 levels, according to numbers from STR, a global hospitality data and analytics company. Last month, occupancy was about 71%, while it was about 66% in April 2019. In April 2020, the number stood at about 41%, and those numbers were artificially boosted by demand for lodging after devastating tornadoes.

When it comes to relevant data comparisons, 2020 isn't even on the board, Patel said.

"The 2020 numbers are in a black hole," he said. "It's almost useless comparing anything to 2020."

The spike in travel and tourism demand comes as vaccinations roll out broadly, and people who spent a year stuck at home feel free to get out once again, said Barry White, CEO of the Chattanooga Tourism Co.

"What we've seen of the pent-up demand that everyone is talking about is that it's coming much quicker than anticipated," White said. "We're extremely pleased to see the interest in traveling and that demand that people are ready to get out and go."

At the Mellow Mushroom restaurant downtown, business has been booming in the past six weeks, owner Brandy Burgans said.

"We saw an insane spring break compared to, of course to last year, but even to the previous two years before," she said. "People were ready to get out, and they decided to eat pizza and go to the Aquarium and go climbing."

As a drive-to market with abundant outdoor attractions, Chattanooga fared better through the pandemic than many markets in the travel and tourism industry. But this time last year was particularly grim, as many businesses were closed and the spring and summer tourism seasons - the lifeblood of the industry - were effectively canceled.

"It's remarkable to think that one year ago, we were still closed and the downtown was a ghost town," said Thom Benson, chief marketing officer for the Tennessee Aquarium. The aquarium was closed for 96 days, from March through June 2020, in response to the coronavirus crisis, cutting 90% of its revenue.

"It's been refreshing to see the Ironman back in town last weekend, people around the downtown area in the last couple of days," Benson said. "We're going to make a lot of people happy over this long weekend."

The aquarium is still operating at about 50% capacity, with timed tickets sold in advance, but the attraction has expanded its hours to increase the number of visitors it can accommodate. Because the aquarium is still operating at reduced capacity, it hasn't rehired much of the staff laid off in stages through the worst of the pandemic, Benson said.

Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Siblings M.J. Lester, 7, front, Joshua Lester, 6, and Victoria Lester, 10, look at a turtle at the Tennessee Aquarium in April. The group were visiting the aquarium from their home in Murfreesboro. As vaccines roll out and summer approaches, local businesses are seeing a strong rebound in the tourism and travel market.

In October 2020, the attraction cut 22 full-time roles, after cutting 112 part-time workers in March 2020. The aquarium has 136 full-time employees and 23 part-time employees, and operating costs are about $400,000 a week to maintain the facility and care for the animals.

"We haven't really hired a significant number of people," Benson said. "We have some part-time positions that have come back, but we're at about 20% capacity at the IMAX Theater and still at half-capacity at the Aquarium, and we have to be very good stewards of the resources we have available."

At Vision, rehiring efforts have been underway for weeks, and the business is at about 1,200 employees. Before the pandemic, it had about 1,500. In the early days of the crisis, Vision laid off about 1,100 people.

"That was the most heartbreaking decision I've ever had to make," Patel said. "We had no choice. It was about survival."

Now the challenge lies in enticing workers back in an extremely tight labor market in which businesses across sectors are struggling to find employees to meet growing demand.

"Our challenge has shifted from lack of guests to lack of employees," Patel said. "I'd rather have this challenge any day. It's a problem, but it's a better challenge than the alternative."

At Mellow Mushroom, Burgans is also scrambling to fill roles, she said.

"I think a lot of people left the industry because of the risks," she said. "You have to be creative these days to hire and retain employees. We're lucky in that most of our employees who were laid off came back."

In Tennessee and Georgia, road construction will be suspended this weekend to make it easier for drivers to navigate their vacations.

"We want to do our part to help everyone have an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend and keep traffic flowing as smoothly and efficiently as possible," said Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Clay Bright.

At the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport, boardings are ticking up steadily, and even the slow-to-rebound business travel market is showing the first tentative signs of recovery, said CEO Terry Hart.

"The last two months, we've seen enplanements rise each month, and I'm pretty sure May will continue that trend with people with that pent-up demand wanting to go somewhere," Hart said.

Boardings are still down about 50%, though, from 2019 numbers, Hart added.

"Long term, we won't see our numbers really recover until 2022, but I think it's going to continue to improve this summer," Hart said.

East Brainerd resident Beth Cobb plans to contribute to that trend, with plans to fly to New York in August to see siblings she hasn't visited since the pandemic began, as well as a "bucket-list" cruise of Europe she and her husband have planned for the fall.

"We have spent a lot of time at home, not going much of anywhere, working from the house, not seeing many people, not seeing family," Cobb said. "We just decided that we wanted to get away, take a trip and just really something we've been wanting to do for a long time."

Contact Mary Fortune at mfortune@timesfreepress.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.