Columbus has lost about $145 million in tourist spending due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking at an Wednesday, Experience Columbus CEO Brian Ross said the city lost about 180,000 hotel room nights in the last two months.
鈥淲e know there鈥檚 going to be a tremendous impact on the overall revenues to the community,鈥� Ross says. 鈥淲e know right now that just since the second week of March through the end of August we鈥檝e had to cancel or reschedule over 100 different groups.鈥�
Ross says some of those events are annual conferences that organizations will not re-book this year.
The lost revenue has a ripple effect. The hotel bed tax helps fund several ventures in the city, including the arts organizations and the Franklin County Convention and Facilities Authority.
鈥淚n April of 2020 in our metropolitan statistical area, hotels had revenues of about $50 million,鈥� Ross says. 鈥淭he new data that we just received as estimates are about $10 million.鈥�
Concerts, festivals and other events also disappeared in March, as Ohio banned gatherings of more than 10 people. Among the canceled events were the annual conference and a tour of the popular musical " ."
Columbus Association For The Performing Arts president Chad Whittington says there鈥檚 no official timeline to reintroduce live performances to the city.
鈥淭here are things that we can do,鈥� Whittington says. 鈥淲e can put up barriers between staff and the public that鈥檚 coming in, we can do touchless tickets so we never have to touch the same piece of paper, we can spread out lines and restrict number of people in the restrooms.鈥�
Whittington says the organization would consider requiring audiences to wear masks, but notes that measure is more controversial.
鈥淚 think no matter what the timing is on re-opening, and we don鈥檛 know exactly what that timing is, doing things like that are going to allow us to open earlier,鈥� Whittington says.
With current social distancing recommendations of six feet between parties, Whittington says theatres would only be able to seat to 30% capacity, which would not be worthwhile financially.
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