(Photo | by Steve Heinrichs Photograhy)
As we think about what the New Year might hold for the tourism industry, it’s helpful to recap how the industry fared over the last year to see where we are heading.
2022 brought a rebound in the travel industry nationwide with the continued rollout of vaccines and easing of pandemic travel restrictions. There was pent-up demand for leisure travel. A new trend of traveling to make up for lost time, coined “revenge travel,” created high demand for airlines, lodging and tourist attractions.
However, that demand brought new challenges with staggering labor shortages significantly impacting travel. Airlines, lodging, and restaurants continue to be hit especially hard. These challenges wreaked havoc on the travel experience – from flight delays and cancellations to restaurants forced to routinely close certain days and reduced room availability in the lodging sector due to lack of service and housekeeping staff. The ongoing labor shortages will continue to affect the quality of the travel experience in 2023.
While many travelers have moved past the health concerns of the pandemic, there are new concerns for travelers including an impending recession, the increased cost of travel and heightened awareness of travelers’ impact on the environment.
According to research on U.S. travelers from Destination Analysts, current traveler sentiment for 2023 shows that over 62% of American travelers are planning to be more cautious with their money due to concerns of a recession. Of these travelers, 77% say this will include their budget for travel.
But despite these financial challenges, there is reason to find optimism. Nearly half of those surveyed anticipate that the recession will be short-lived and expectations to travel and spend more in 2023 are at the same levels as they were at the start of 2022 — a year that saw record numbers for tourism.
And while the past few years have certainly been difficult ones for the tourism industry, Central Oregon has continued to fare well. While consumer demand for cities and crowded spaces waned; visitors continue to seek out the scenic beauty and natural spaces our region offers. Visitors to Central Oregon are attracted to the myriad of opportunities for outdoor recreation, culinary experiences, and arts and culture.
One measure of our regional tourism performance is Transient Room Tax (TRT) which was up 14% in FY 2022 over FY 2021.
With the increased revenue, Visit Central Oregon continues to evolve our role as the regional destination management organization. The scope of our work has increased, and we allocate funds generated from tourism not only for marketing but to support projects and initiatives that positively impact the region for the future.
Last year we added a new position of Director of Workforce Development -this shared role with Visit Bend is an innovative partnership between our organizations. The newly created position advocates for workforce initiatives specifically in the tourism industry.
Another newly launched initiative is the Central Oregon Future Fund, a grant program that will re-invest $840k of Transient Room Tax generated by overnight visitors back into tourism projects under three pillars: accessibility, sustainability, and cultural tourism. The goal of the fund is to reinvest dollars for positive revitalization in the region that will benefit both visitors and residents. We look forward to seeing a variety of projects funded with this program. The application is open until February 28 with grant awards announced in April.
We’ve also increased our resources towards business development to attract meetings and events to our region with a focus on non-peak seasons. This is an important initiative to ensure that we are driving a thriving year-round tourism economy for our partners.
The core of our mission is still to attract visitation to the region. We continue to inspire visitation to all of our communities in Central Oregon through integrated marketing campaigns.
We’ve continued our installation of large-scale, hand-painted murals with the theme: “Greetings From…” in seven cities throughout the region. These murals offer a year-round, self-guided way to experience what makes each of our communities unique and spotlights the growing arts and culture scene here.
We’ve captured creative assets that feature a diverse range of people to make our region more welcoming to visitors regardless of their race, age, sexual orientation, or physical ability. We partnered on four different print and digital guides that highlight travel to the region, culinary, weddings and meetings. This drives our visitors to local businesses to help them plan their visit to Central Oregon. Our inspiring content provides an insider’s look at regional culinary experiences, lodging options and less-visited attractions and natural wonders. We’ve also incorporated 360 videos into our campaigns.
Every marketing project we lead is focused on putting our tourism businesses and communities in front of potential visitors in a unique way.
Heading into 2023, I remain optimistic about the year ahead. Despite economic and industry challenges, there is strong consumer demand for travel and Central Oregon is well poised for a successful year ahead.
Please reach out with any questions on Visit Central Oregon programs and initiatives at julia@visitcentraloregon.com.
