Ella Gonzalez is used to hearing families from faraway places bustling into the lobby of the Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina during the summer. They typically have jam-packed schedules, filled from sunrise to dusk with excursions around the seaside city.
But the coronavirus pandemic has canceled major events, including the Newport International Boat Show and Newport jazz and folk festivals, both of which draw the hotel’s largest crowds. Gonzalez, director of sales and marketing, said the hotel’s 133 rooms might still sell out for those normally crowded weekends, but room rates are expected to fall by at least $200.
To boost business this summer, the hotel has shifted its focus, partnering with small businesses to attract local residents.
The waterfront hotel’s biggest success has been hosting cycling classes provided by fitness studio WAVE Cycle LLC on a pier outside the hotel. Participants, most of whom live in or near Newport, receive a bag of hotel swag, including discounts to the hotel restaurant, Saltwater.
“We’re partnering with small businesses to keep them alive, but also reengage locals,” Gonzalez said.
In a typical summer, far-flung travelers by the thousands dock in Newport marinas, surf along the coast in Narragansett, hike the bluffs on Block Island and dine at Providence’s top-notch restaurants. But the coronavirus crisis has changed that this year, making travel a risky proposition both into and out of the region.
For that reason, Rhode Islanders might be seeing a lot more of another type of tourist this summer: themselves.
After being cooped up at home for nearly four months and feeling anxiety about how other states are faring with a surge in new COVID-19 cases, Rhode Island residents are staying home and rediscovering their own backyard.
In a bid for survival, many in the tourism industry are trying to entice them.
HOPE ON THE HILL
So far, it seems to have worked on Providence’s Federal Hill.
The neighborhood’s celebrated restaurants suffered a blow in March when Gov. Gina M. Raimondo ordered eateries and bars across the state to shut down as the pandemic took hold.
To make matters worse, meetings and conventions scheduled to take place in downtown Providence for the remainder of 2020 were canceled or postponed, meaning no conventioneers flocking to Federal Hill once those eateries could reopen.
But since mid-June, the city has closed Atwells Avenue to traffic on Friday and Saturday nights, allowing restaurants to set up widely spaced tables outside, a scene reminiscent of eating al fresco on an Italian piazza. And diners have responded, filling the tables on the street on weekends to enjoy an open-air meal.
Restaurateur Armando Bisceglia couldn’t be happier.
He opened Bacco Vino & Contorni three weeks before the shutdown. But since reopening, Bisceglia has built a patio that can hold additional seats, and 25 seats on Atwells Avenue on weekends nearly doubles his restaurant’s capacity.
“I’m one of the few people that COVID-19 has actually helped,” Bisceglia said.
Rick Simone, executive director of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, is trying to build on the success.
He is working with local hotels to put together packages for out-of-state visitors that will include gift cards to Federal Hill restaurants. He is already finalizing plans with the 274-room Hilton Providence.
“We want to make this as enticing and affordable as possible,” said Simone.
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STAYING AFLOAT: Matt Gineo is the general manager of Oldport Marine Services Inc. in Newport, which rents moorings, sells boat engines and provides harbor tours and shuttle services. Despite weekday sales being down 55% to 60%, Gineo says moorings rentals are up and engine sales have increased by 25%, keeping the business afloat. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS[/caption]
HIGH STAKES
The success of such initiatives could be crucial.
Kristen Adamo, CEO and president of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, has already pegged the economic losses from canceled or postponed events in Greater Providence at $48.5 million through Nov. 1.
After Nov. 1, “I expect that number to go up exponentially,” Adamo said.
And Evan Smith, CEO of Discover Newport, said Newport’s businesses lost $200 million in gross revenue from the decline in travel-related tourism in April, May and June. He estimated losses could add up to $350 million to $400 million in July, August and September.
According to an analysis conducted by Tourism Economics last year, Rhode Island’s “traveler economy” amounted to $6.8 billion in 2018. That same year, Rhode Island hosted 25.4 million visitors, with 8 million of them staying overnight. The analysis concluded that 1 in nearly 8 jobs in Rhode Island is sustained by tourism.
With the financial stakes so high, R.I. Commerce Corp. has pushed on with tourism marketing during the pandemic. But the strategy has shifted, using R.I. Commerce’s $2 million marketing budget for targeted digital ads to encourage “staycations” by both Rhode Islanders and visitors from nearby states that have low rates of positive COVID-19 tests. People arriving from states with positive rates below 5% are not required to be tested or quarantined for 14 days.
“We want them to drive here, but also book a night” in a hotel, said Matt Sheaff, R.I. Commerce communications director.
Sheaff said Rhode Island’s drive market includes the New England states, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Only Pennsylvania was testing above the 5% rate as of July 23, according to data provided by the R.I. Department of Health.
Meanwhile, Rep. Lauren H. Carson, D-Newport, has been sounding the alarm that the state needs to develop long-term recovery plans for the tourism sector. Carson, who was chairwoman of the expired Special Legislative Commission to Study Methods for Growing Tourism, said the commission should be reconvened to help draft plans, pointing to what she believed is a clear sign tourism is struggling.
“There’s a lot of [available] parking. That’s your first sign Newport isn’t busy,” Carson said.
Matt Gineo, general manager at Old Port Marine Services Inc. in Newport, acknowledged business has not been the same as in a typical summer.
The company, which rents moorings, sells boat engines and provides harbor tours and shuttle services, can normally count on international travelers for a significant chunk of its tour business, Gineo said.
But this season, weekday sales are still down 55% to 60%, despite Gineo dropping ticket prices for tours. He said moorings rentals are up, and engine sales have increased by 25%, which is keeping the business afloat.
“I’m banking on locals for a staycation,” Gineo said.
The Preservation Society of Newport County, which operates the Newport Mansions, has added extensive virtual tours and live-stream lectures on historical topics as a way to keep the mansions in the public eye. The popularity of the lectures has increased, drawing in as many 600 viewers for the now free events that once attracted about 250 and sometimes included fees.
The society has also scrapped its in-person audio equipment for tours, now allowing visitors to download a smartphone app that allows them to listen repeatedly even after leaving the grounds.
Still, the moves have not helped the bottom line.
The group had to lay off 231 employees in June – 69% of its staff – and ticket sales are down 70% from last year.
“If we try to compare ourselves from last year, we will go crazy,” said Trudy Coxe, society CEO and executive director. “We won’t be close to [last year] for a long time. But we’ve been around for 75 years and are one of the most visited sites in Rhode Island.”
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SETTING UP: Kathy Hartley, founder, CEO and president of Hearthside House Museum in Lincoln, prepares for the museum’s “Christmas in July” event, which was held on July 18. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM[/caption]
‘LIMPING RIGHT NOW’
Robert Billington, president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, is struggling to serve nine cities and towns with nearly 80% less in hotel tax revenue than last year. On top of that, lucrative annual events such as the Chinese dragon boat races on the Seekonk River and Polar Express train rides, which in years past have generated $1.5 million, have been scratched off the calendar this year.
“We’re limping right now, to say the least,” said Billington, normally an upbeat cheerleader for northern Rhode Island. Even the council’s popular riverboat, the Blackstone Valley Explorer, which seats about 40 people in close quarters, has remained in storage because it would be too costly to operate with fewer, safely spaced passengers.
Instead, Billington’s team turned its attention to wooing Blackstone Valley residents.
One new idea: Drawing locals to restaurants and other attractions with bingo cards. The more visits made at various places, the more likely a five-in-a-row connection on a card and the better chance at winning prizes, such as gift cards to local businesses.
“[The bingo cards] got some people out and some money into the local economy,” said James Tomey, the tourism council’s marketing director.
Elsewhere in the valley, Kathy Hartley is doing her best to draw visitors to the Hearthside House Museum in Lincoln. Hartley, founder, CEO and president of the nonprofit Friends of Hearthside Inc., said visitors have been reluctant to tour the historic 19th-century mansion because of its close quarters and leeriness about group gatherings.
The museum’s latest exhibit, called “Toys in the Attic,” is a collection of knick-knacks from the mid-1800s to 1980s. Where visitors would usually walk through the mansion with a guide, Hartley is hosting movie showings on the scenic grounds on an outdoor 16-foot screen that reflect the days when these toys were popular.
Recently, the first movie night, a “Christmas in July” theme, showed the original “Miracle on 34th Street.” Each child received a toy, popcorn was provided and Santa Claus appeared on the roof. About 25 people showed up, which was about half of the number Hartley expected.
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WATERFRONT SPIN: Ella Gonzalez, director of sales and marketing for the Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina, says one of the hotel’s biggest successes during the coronavirus pandemic has been hosting cycling classes provided by fitness studio WAVE Cycle LLC on a pier outside the hotel. The class is being run by Chloe Snyder. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS[/caption]
COASTING ALONG
There is hope in South County, where Louise Bishop, CEO and president of the South County Tourism Council, said hotels have an 80% occupancy rate so far this summer and summer-house rentals are accounting for more than 60% of the area’s overnight stays.
“We thought this summer was going to be a wash,” Bishop said. “That’s just not the case right now.”
It hasn’t been all good news. Bishop projects losses for local businesses because of canceled events to be nearly $1.8 million and $12.6 million in lost sales tax revenue. But she is hopeful that consumer spending by local residents will offset the losses.
And Bishop has taken steps to draw local visitors out. In one marketing experiment, the council has collected bins of sea scallop, clam and oyster shells from local restaurants and used them to create 10-foot walls of art installations for visitors to find on beaches and hidden away in coves.
“The local people will already know a lot of these locations where we are hiding them,” said Bishop.
Across Block Island Sound, the tourism season hasn’t been as dark as once feared.
Jessica Willi, executive director of the Block Island Tourism Council, said the island doesn’t see many international travelers in a typical year, doesn’t have chain hotels and didn’t have large events that had to be canceled like they have on the mainland.
Regional tourists are filling ferries to Block Island.
“If we continue to go forward like we are, we will be in decent shape [for] the year,” said Willi, who doesn’t yet have recent local and hotel tax revenue figures. “There is still a chance that we will go backwards [if there is a surge in new COVID cases], and if we lose visitation for August, then our projections would be way down.”
Brad Marthens, owner of the 21-room Atlantic Inn on Block Island, already has recalibrated his standard for a successful 2020.
The inn was forced to delay its opening for the season while it made alterations to account for $12,000 in state-mandated health requirements, including installing plexiglass in between the hotel’s restaurant tables.
“It’s not about making money this year. It’s about surviving,” he said.
At the Newport Harbor Hotel, Gonzalez is optimistic for the remainder of the season, even with a 40% decrease in overall occupancy. For her, it’s all about marketing for the future, past the pandemic, and to attract tourists from the region.
“Everyone coming now are locals, so they are thinking positively about this hotel and will recommend people to … host events here,” she said.
Alexa Gagosz is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Gagosz@PBN.com.
