TRAVERSE CITY – For fashionistas, Labor Day means a time to pack those white shorts away until Memorial Day.
In a region that depends on visitors for much of its livelihoods, it’s also a time when local tourist fans take stock of how successful the season has been.
Trevor Tkach, President and CEO of Traverse City Tourism, said demand for hotel accommodation in the Traverse City area had declined only marginally from pre-2019 numbers. This year started a little slowly, but then recovered, he said.
“(Earlier this year) we still had things that we closed – Great Wolf Lodge closed completely,” said Tkach. “It now appears that we are going back to the numbers we saw before the pandemic.”
There have been many day trips over the past year, he said. Not so this year.
“People are returning to their more traditional travel habits and overnight stays,” he said.
The rental market must also be taken into account.
“The demand for short-term rentals was similar, almost identical to the demand for hotels,” said Tkach.
Tkach said it was difficult to determine how the staff shortage had affected tourism this year. The long-standing labor shortage was much worse this year.
“It was painful. It definitely still affects the hospitality industry in northern Michigan,” Tkach said.
Early year attendance at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore spiked from last year through July and August as last year’s numbers hit records.
Even so, June, July, and August combined saw more than a million visitors to the National Lakeshore – 1.168 million to be precise.
There were also indications of a recovery in tourism at Cherry Capital Airport, where passenger numbers were well above the numbers before the 2019 pandemic.
In June, the airport counted around 79,300 passengers, 27 percent more than in the record year 2019, said airport director Kevin Klein. In July there were around 112,900 passengers, 21 percent more than in 2019.
Klein said there were several reasons for the surge this year, including the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival, which ran for nearly six weeks from July to August, which was huge this year, and the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, which was canceled last year .
“The travel needs for people who just want to get away are so pent up,” said Klein, adding that as the community grows, the airport has a responsibility to grow with it.
In the past five years, the airport has added 17 flights to popular destinations such as Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Orlando, Florida, and Washington, DC, and added flights to Boston and Philadelphia last year.
Several airlines have also added larger aircraft to their fleets, which means there are more seats available on each flight, Klein said.
“It’s a very good thing for our church,” he said. “It brings business to our area, but most importantly, it enables our locals to travel.”
The airport also provides a link for families who didn’t see each other during the pandemic, Klein said.
Last but not least, the high COVID-19 vaccination rates in the region are a factor, he said, especially in the Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties, where 68 percent and 75 percent of people aged 12 and over are fully vaccinated, respectively.
Tkach said the airport numbers are a good indicator that people are coming from further afield and spending more time here as well as more money.
[ad_1]
