The coronavirus pandemic crippled the local tourism industry, which isn’t expected to fully recover to 2019 profitability until 2023, Stacie Brown, President of the Shreveport Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau told the Bossier City Council Tuesday.
Despite the dire forecast, the Bossier City-Shreveport tourism market is well ahead of the U.S. tourism recovery.
“Our hotel demand will approach normalcy in the second half of 2021 but it will take really into 2023 until we are fully back to our 2019 numbers,” Brown said.
In April, total hotel occupancy was 33.4%.
“I have never seen it that low,” Brown said.
And yet, Brown pointed out that the local tourism economy suffered less than the national average. From January through July of this year, hotel occupancy in Bossier City-Shreveport was down 22%, compared to a 35% decline nationally, Brown reported. The local market’s resilience is due to its regional location and an existing customer base, she added.
“We have a very high repeat visitation,” Brown said. “We have customers that come five and six times a year to our community.”
Most meetings, conferences and sports events have been canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but local hotel occupancy rebounded in the past few months due to an unexpected reason: bookings from hurricane evacuees.
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November 18, 2020 at 07:58PM
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COVID Economy: Local Tourism Industry Won't Rebound Until 2023 - Bossier Now
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