Lodging receipts down, but not out

Peninsula slump defies industry-wide freefall

The roller-coaster ride that was the 2020 tourist lodging industry on the North Olympic Peninsula ended on a positive note, a top Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau official said.

Marsha Massey, executive director for the regional organization, said Tuesday a robust fall marketing campaign helped fuel an uptick in visitors at the end of 2020 that could foretell a strong, post-COVID-19 economy to come.

It likely will be fueled, once Canada lifts its travel restrictions, by passengers from the Black Ball Ferry Line’s M.V. Coho, which company co-owner Ryan Malane said Thursday can survive in downtime-mode until spring 2022, if need be.

“We have enough to make it through to then,” said Malane, whose vessel has been prevented from making trips to Victoria, B.C., by Canadian travel restrictions.

He said one way Black Ball is keeping a few of its 120 employees working is by branching off its marketing department to research products like the report Massey employed to assess the 2020 lodging industry.

Malane deduced from his conversations with area lodging business entrepreneurs that much of the activity in overnight establishments occurred in the Airbnb sector.

Massey said last week the increase in fall tourism activity included a 53 percent boost in occupancy at Clallam County parks, a 30 percent occupancy rate from travelers from Seattle at Port Ludlow Resort, and traffic into the Hoh Rain Forest was so busy that Olympic National Park closed the entrance over the Thanksgiving weekend because the parking lot was full.

Massey, who gave an overview of the 2020 tourism industry for a Feb. 10 Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce presentation, said Tuesday that lodging tax receipts from January through December 2020 in Clallam and Jefferson counties were down 27 percent compared with 2019.

There is a two-month lag between when revenue is generated to when it’s reported.

She said that was not as bad as it could have been.

“That was much better than the industry average, and much better than we anticipated in the midst of the pandemic,” she said.

North Olympic Peninsula tourism industry entrepreneurs in May and June were expecting a 50 percent drop, which was in keeping with the 48 percent average decline that occurred in the lodging industry nationwide, she said.

The year started out stronger than ever for lodging taxes on the Peninsula before the economy took a head punch due to COVID-19 restrictions that took effect in March.

Massey said combined lodging tax receipts for Clallam and Jefferson counties were up 9 percent January and April 2020 compared with the record year for 2019.

From May through October, they were down 42 percent.

November and December were down 5 percent compared to 2019’s record year during a robust “You can’t get any more Northwest!” “Fall Recovery” advertising campaign.

It targeted the I-5 corridor between Bellingham and Portland, Ore., drawing 178,000 visits to the Bureau’s olympicpeninsula.org website, a 50 percent increase compared with 2019, she said.

“If you extend that out to include January 2021 reporting, so November 2020, December 2020 and January 2021 are compared to same time [in the] prior year, which reflects the majority of the ad campaign, the positive trend continues, so that the difference is only -3 percent,” Massey said Tuesday in an email.

The focused approach helped dull the sharp edges of a season when tourism mainstays such as the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival could not take place due to restrictions on large gatherings.

Information offered to the public included educating them about safety protocols.

For the $87,500 fall campaign, there were 42.5 million campaign impressions, or the total number of times the website was viewed, generating an estimated $1.2 million in revenue, according to olympicpeninsula.org.

There was a 46 percent increase in website users, a 61 percent increase in page views, a 52 percent increase in Google search impressions and an 88 percent increase in clicks to the website from a Google search,

The Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission, administered by the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, covers Clallam, Jefferson and Mason counties, and the northern part of Grays Harbor County. The commission is a marketing partnership funded by counties and municipalities across the Olympic Peninsula.

“We’re still on a rebuilding curve,” Massey said Wednesday, predicting that May and June will be stronger than last year, but not as strong as 2019.

“It’s fair to say the pandemic has set us back a couple of years,” she said.

The visitor bureau will continue focusing on drawing visitors from Washington and Oregon rather than reaching out, like it would in a non-COVID world, to Canada, Florida and Texas.

“Nobody wants to go through the yo-yo thing of up and down, up and down, open one day and closed the next,” Massey said.

________

Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.

More in News

Chimacum Elementary School sixth-grade students jump on a rotating maypole as they use the new playground equipment on Monday during recess. The playground was redesigned with safer equipment and was in use for the first time since inspections were completed last Thursday. (Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News)
New equipment

Chimacum Elementary School sixth-grade students jump on a rotating maypole as they… Continue reading

Microsoft purchases Peninsula credits

Carbon removal will come from area forests

Port Angeles School District to reduce budget by $1.9M

Additional cuts could come if government slashes Title 1 funding

Jefferson County discussion centers on fireworks

Potential future bans, pathway to public displays discussed

Natalie Maitland.
Port Townsend Main Street hires next executive director

Natalie Maitland will start new role with organization May 21

Olympic Kiwanis Club member Tobin Standley, right, hands a piece of stereo equipment to Gerald Casasola for disposal during Saturday’s electronics recycling collection day in the parking lot at Port Angeles Civic Field. Items collected during the roundup were to be given to Friendly Earth International Recycling for repairs and eventual resale, or else disassembled for parts. Club members were accepting monetary donations during the event as a benefit for Kiwanis community programs. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Electronics recycling

Olympic Kiwanis Club member Tobin Standley, right, hands a piece of stereo… Continue reading

Port Angeles Garden Club member Bobbie Daniels, left, and her daughter, Rose Halverson, both of Port Angeles, look at a table of plants for sale at the club’s annual plant sale and raffle on Saturday at the Port Angeles Senior Center. The event featured hundreds of plants for sale as a fundraiser for club events and operations. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Plant sale

Port Angeles Garden Club member Bobbie Daniels, left, and her daughter, Rose… Continue reading

Two people transported to hospitals after three-car collision

Two people were transported to hospitals after a three-car collision… Continue reading

Special candidate filing period to open Wednesday

The Clallam County elections office will conduct a special… Continue reading

Moses McDonald, a Sequim water operator, holds one of the city’s new utility residential meters in his right hand and a radio transmitter in his left. City staff finished replacing more than 3,000 meters so they can be read remotely. (City of Sequim)
Sequim shifts to remote utility meters

Installation for devices began last August

A family of eagles sits in a tree just north of Carrie Blake Community Park. Following concerns over impacts to the eagles and nearby Garry oak trees, city staff will move Sequim’s Fourth of July fireworks display to the other side of Carrie Blake Community Park. Staff said the show will be discharged more than half a mile away. (City of Sequim)
Sequim to move fireworks display

Show will remain in Carrie Blake Park

W. Ron Allen.
Allen to be inducted into Native American Hall of Fame

Ceremony will take place in November in Oklahoma City