It’s nearly impossible for there to be a worse time to be in the group meeting and destination marketing business, statistics show.
According to data through April 5 from Visit Jacksonville, the COVID-19 pandemic forced all the conventions that intended to come to Jacksonville in March to cancel their plans.
That reduced hotel occupancy by 65% and combined hotel revenue by 79%, compared to March 2019. Countywide hotel occupancy in March was about 55%, more than 30% less than in March 2019.
That won’t change until social-distancing and quarantine restrictions are lifted, whenever that will be.
“We don’t know what the future looks like. We’re working with the groups to reschedule their meetings,” said Michael Corrigan, Visit Jacksonville president and CEO. The group is the convention and visitors bureau for Jacksonville and the Beaches.
Overall, group business accounted for only 10% of the hotel room bookings, a 58% decline compared with March 2019.
Planning a convention isn’t done on the spur of the moment, so the business that had to cancel was put under contract at least a year – or more – ago, Corrigan said.
Visit Jacksonville’s sales staff is working remotely, but the destination marketing effort hasn’t slowed because of the pandemic.
“We are selling group business in 2022 right now,” he said.
When the restrictions are lifted and the market recovers, how hotels do business and how Visit Jacksonville sells the destination likely will change, Corrigan said.
He expects hotels to initiate aggressive environmental sanitation processes and provide larger spaces to accommodate fewer people than before to continue to practice social distancing.
Visit Jacksonville might shift its focus from national marketing to a more regional approach that would match Jacksonville’s limited nonstop airline service.
“The country wants to come to Florida. We’re figuring out how to rebuild the Jacksonville market as quickly as possible. There could be opportunities for nontraditional Florida destinations that could make Northeast Florida more attractive,” Corrigan said.