RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - It's a hard lesson and one we've learned before. An economy that relies heavily on tourists spending disposable income is very vulnerable.
For two months the doors were shut at local hotel casinos, the number of visitors slowed to a trickle and with it, room tax revenue.
“We’ve lost about 225,000 room nights due to the coronavirus,” says Ben McDonald, spokesman for the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority. “In April we were down about 89 percent in taxable revenues. In May we were down about 82 percent.”
With reopening, there’s been a recovery---of sorts.
“The latest projection for June for taxable room revenues will be about half what we saw last year. So, that’s significant. That’s a reduction of $17 to 18 million dollars in revenue overall just for the room tax. “
The room tax is a major revenue source for local governments, air service and tourism promotion, and, of course, the it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Hotel casinos are open again, but the conventions and special events that would usually at this time be bringing people to our area are missing having been cancelled. A case in point, the US Bowling Congress.
“When they were here in 2016 for the open championships, we estimated the economic impact at roughly $70 million dollars of impact to this community,” says McDonald, “and that effects everybody, restaurants, retail, hotels. So that’s significant.”
The staff at the Convention and Visitors Authority has felt the pinch as well. Many have been furloughed. Those that remain are still working to bring conventions and events to town.
“We just did get approval to book a 13,000 room night piece of business for 2024. So our sales team is still out booking business for future years. but the next six to twelve months is full of uncertainty.”>
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July 18, 2020 at 07:45AM
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By the numbers: COVID-19's economic impact - KOLO
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