Tourism Update

State data scheduled to be released tomorrow will paint an almost identical portrait of the Myrtle Beach tourism economy as was initially illustrated by a Coastal Carolina University report released yesterday, a spokesman at the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism tells FITS.

The state data – which is taken from a different sample than the local data – will show that Grand Strand hotels had a 96-98% occupancy rate during the Fourth of July weekend, a slight increase from last year.

The data will also show a 5% drop in occupancy rates during the week leading up to the holiday – which is also virtually identical to the data released yesterday by the Brittain Center for resort tourism.

Similar – although not identical – reductions in room rates will also appear in the state data, meaning that hotel managers must fill more rooms to reach last year’s profit levels.

“It’s a little slower than last year,” said PRT spokesman Marion Edmunds. “And room rates have obviously dropped.”

Edmunds says that families appear to be cutting back on the duration of their visits in response to difficult economic conditions, cutting five-day trips to four-day trips, for example.

He called the similarities in the state and local data “remarkably consistent.”

“It’s not that people are not vacationing,” Edmunds says. “It looks like there has been some scaling back.”

Just how big of an impact that “scaling back” will have on South Carolina’s already precarious revenue situation remains to be seen.

After all, tourism is the Palmetto State’s No. 1 economic engine, and lawmakers watch the peak summer occupancy rates very closely.

Now … if only we could only get them to watch our tax dollars that closely …

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