Roanoke and New River valleys
Region beginning to realize gains from outdoors based strategy
The arrival of summer in the Roanoke Valley brought with it a rush of more than 2,500 athletes ready to test their mettle in the second annual Ironman triathlon hosted by the region.
Now, just weeks later, that is being swiftly followed by an influx of 700-plus of the nation’s top amateur cyclists gathering for a four-day national championship event under the banner of USA Cycling.
The announcement that the region had landed that competition, happening June 29 to July 2, came shortly after it had also inked a deal to serve as the new training ground for an elite women’s bike racing team whose riders are contenders for the 2024 Olympics.
These coups mean more than just good press for the valley — it means hotel bookings, restaurant dining, shopping purchases, an economic impact totaling in the millions.
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“Virginia’s Blue Ridge is going to have a great summer,” said Landon Howard, president of the regional tourism bureau dubbed Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge.
“We’re growing as a destination,” he said, “and more people are getting to know us.”
After weathering an unprecedented, pandemic-driven downturn — visitor spending slumped by a whopping 40% statewide in 2020 — tourism leaders are seeing a flurry of new energy in the industry as in-person events return and leisure travelers set out to make up for lost time.
“Pent-up demand has been a big thing,” said David Rotenizer, regional tourism director for Montgomery County, Christiansburg and Blacksburg.
“People are wanting to get out,” he said.
The most recent, comprehensive data available only tracks tourism activity through 2020, a harsh year, but anecdotally those trendlines are rebounding in 2022 amid the return of warm weather and eased health guidelines.
Over the first four months of the year, local lodging revenue jumped by 42.5%, with the biggest gains posted in March and April, said Howard, whose organization serves Roanoke, Salem, Roanoke County, Franklin County and Botetourt County.
Figures for May were still pending but expected to be strong. “And June is going to be even stronger,” Howard said.
Rotenizer seconded that for the New River Valley. Recently, he said, state tourism researchers advised that since the arrival of March the region has largely returned to its pre-pandemic visitor numbers.
“Things are on the up and up right now,” he said.
The two valleys are benefitting, in part, from a high interest in outdoor recreation tourism that reflects the region’s diverse array of offerings — from the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway to river sports and miles of mountain biking routes — as well as years of strategic work put into establishing the area as an outdoor adventure destination.
In 2018, for example, the Roanoke Valley was named a Silver-Level Ride Center by the International Mountain Bicycling Association. That award was the result of years of work by regional partners to strengthen the local cycling scene.
It also distinguished the area as the only silver-level community along the entire East Coast at the time.
Valley leaders predicted that credibility would pay dividends in the future. Now, cycling has been part of a string of major event announcements. The upcoming USA Cycling championship alone is expected to generate an economic impact of $1.5 million.
That is the long game of tourism development, Howard said.
“It’s a process,” he said. “The reputation starts growing and you get people coming from other states to check out our mountain biking trails, and then they discover that we also have great gravel routes and great road biking and others.”
“Then, literally, we have multiple cycling-type tournaments and others that are calling us asking — can we come?”
The region is also aided by its affordable price point. Inflation and fuel prices aren’t tamping down the desire to resume traveling, according to a Morning Consult survey, but are spurring vacationers to look for more economical, closer-to-home getaway options.
The valleys are well-situated to capture travelers from D.C. to the Carolinas who are looking for a mini trip, local leaders said. In one destination, visitors can explore everything from downtowns and art museums to cabins and mountains.
“That travel has not stopped,” said Rotenizer, adding the hunger for leisure travel is so widespread it’s spurred a new and emphatic pandemic-era term: revenge travel.
There are pandemic disruption impacts still in play in the industry. Local business travel levels haven’t yet fully recovered, which tracks with trends on the national stage, where an analysis from Deloitte Insights forecast that corporate travel would see steady but not impressive growth this year.
Both Rotenizer and Howard said there are ample reasons to be optimistic about the outlook for local tourism in the months ahead though. Passenger rail and airline service to the region are expanding. Extended repairs to the parkway around the Roanoke River Bridge are scheduled to wrap up in time for the popular fall foliage season.
Convention and event bookings are up as gatherings that had to be hastily canceled in 2020 begin to come back.
“Everywhere you look, there is energy and dynamic things going on,” Rotenizer said. “I know we had a tough couple of years but I think we’re going to come out of it doing much better … It’s already happening. We’re just trying to keep up with all of it and the pace of everything.”
Lynchburg region
Lynchburg-area tourism rebounding after being hit hard by COVID
Rachael Smith, The News & Advance
Tourism in the Lynchburg region appears to be rebounding following the past two years of the coronavirus pandemic.
Though Lynchburg hasn’t received its official 2021 tourism numbers yet, Anna Bentson, assistant director for the Office of Economic Development & Tourism, was able to speak to how the Hill City fared last year.
“Obviously, the pandemic hit the hospitality and tourism sectors especially hard,” she said. “2020 witnessed a massive dip across all sectors, including retail, lodging, restaurant and entertainment. Most rebounded in 2021 but entertainment has continued to lag into 2022 and has recently experienced a surge. Everyone figured out how to serve and work differently and that has fundamentally changed the industry.”
She said there is definitely pent-up demand to get back out and enjoy tourism and hospitality aspects. In fact, OEDT is on track to permit more than 50 special events through Lynchburg in 2022, from road races to music festivals, with an impact of over $2 million.
The OEDT office receives a weekly lodging report from the Virginia Tourism Corp. and Smith Travel Research, and May’s commencement exercises at Liberty University, which more than 60,000 people were expected to have attended this year, had a major impact on the local economy.
“We saw the second highest occupancy rate for the lodging sector across the commonwealth with our restaurants full and attractions reporting high attendance,” Bentson said.
Official numbers from the city say tourism jobs comprised 3,245 of local employment in 2020 and 3,825 jobs in 2019. Lynchburg’s tourism industries drove $18.9 million in state and local revenues in 2020, and saved each household about $668 in annual state and local tax collections in 2020.
Tourism sales produced more than 100 sales leads, producing about 41,000 requested hotel room nights with an estimated impact of more than $19.4 million in 2020 — an increase from $14.6 million in 2019.
Mary Massie, director of programs and education at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, said that site, like most other cultural entities, was hit hard by COVID in 2020.
It was closed to the public for a few months at the start of the pandemic but was able to pivot and figure out a way to safely open by the beginning of June of that year.
“Our pre-pandemic visitation was around 24,000 visitors a year and went down to just over 7,000 in 2020,” she said. “We were thrilled in 2021 to see our visitation numbers increase the way they did.”
While visitation is lower than the year before the pandemic, it has bounced back to almost 20,000 last year, and Massie anticipates hitting that mark or hopefully exceeding it this year.
“We have noticed particularly that our public events, especially our outdoor events like our July Fourth celebration and our annual wine festival, have continued to be well attended post-COVID, and we hope that trend continues,” she said.
Michelline Hall, chief programming officer at the Academy Center of the Arts, said the academy has seen an increase in people returning to for various reasons, and the organization is on track to have more visitors than in 2019.
“We are definitely back and trending better than ever!” she said.
In 2019, the Academy had 82,457 visitors but in 2020 that number dipped to 42,585 visitors. In 2021, it had 38,968 visitors. For all ticketed events in 2022 through May 20, it has sold nearly 15,000 tickets total, and its total visitors — a figure that also includes the impact of classes, camps and nonticketed events — is 26,705 as of May 20 this year.
Mary Ellen LaFreniere, co-owner of Abide Stays, a short-term rental management company, said her business did well during the pandemic because so many people were fleeing larger cities to stay safe in midsize ones such as Lynchburg and didn’t want to stay in hotels.
“They wanted to come stay somewhere they could be in a house with a backyard or some green space accessible,” she said.
She thought her new business — established in late 2018 — would go under, but she had every one of her rentals booked and they stayed full throughout the entire pandemic.
“In the beginning, it was people just escaping cities and just chose to come to Lynchburg because they wanted a place where they could explore new trails, go to parks and have a place to eat their takeout, but then we actually had at least five people who stayed with us and ended up moving to Lynchburg,” she said. “They wanted to check this place out and ended up buying houses.”
Many of those people came from areas such as Washington, D.C. and wanted to stay in an area not too far away, she said.
“We heard a lot of people saying they could drive here without stopping from D.C. where they were afraid to go into gas stations and things. So this was a short enough trip,” she said. “The fact that there weren’t other people around during COVID when everybody became afraid of other people who could possibly infect them with the virus, I think they all felt like it was cleaner and safer.”
She found there were a lot of guests were surprised to see how much Lynchburg had to offer during COVID.
LaFreniere operates rentals out of Lynchburg, Bedford, Danville and Wintergreen and saw a spike in visitors last year once vaccines were issued and the virus was less of a threat.
“More people were gathering for events and traveling with friends as opposed to just single families traveling,” she said. “We started to see a lot more of bachelor and bachelorette parties and things like that where it was groups again. I will say now we’re seeing a dip with the inflation and gas prices and there are fewer people trying to travel or just have disposable incomes. They can stay in their own city one night and have a fun experience.”
Smith Mountain Lake
Tourism to lake grew during pandemic
Jason Dunovant, Laker Weekly
With the arrival of Memorial Day, the summer season is underway at Smith Mountain Lake. While the last two years have seen record highs for tourism, there are some question of how this year may shake out.
Smith Mountain Lake saw a record number of tourists in the past two years. The influx was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic which hit in early 2020. Visitors found a safe, socially distanced vacation spot that offered multiple recreational activities away from large crowds.
Andy Bruns, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he estimates the lake community had more than 50,000 new visitors in 2020 and 2021. The information was gathered through Datafy which tracks cellphone movement.
Bruns expects to see a lot of those new visitors return this summer despite travel opening up and COVID-19 restrictions easing. He said people can easily get hooked once they visit Smith Mountain Lake for the first time.
“I think we are going to have another really solid year,” Bruns said.
Bedford County, which borders Smith Mountain Lake, is also expecting another busy year for tourism. The county’s director of tourism, Nicole Johnson, said she is also counting on those first-time visitors from the past two years to return.
“I think we’ll continue to see a high number of travelers as now more people have heard about Bedford,” Johnson said. “We’re the type of destination that is very appealing to many who are interested in a slower pace, connecting with nature and the outdoors, and not being in crowded places.”
In addition to Smith Mountain Lake, Bedford County boasts several tourist destinations such as the National D-Day Memorial, Peaks of Otter and the Blue Ridge Parkway just to name a few.
Johnson said Bedford County reported a record amount of occupancy tax collected in fiscal year 2019 which includes the first half of 2020 when tourism exploded in much of the area. It also reached a new high in fiscal year 2021 and she said expectations are that this year could be another record.
On the southern side of Smith Mountain Lake, Franklin County is also preparing for another tourist season. Lorie Smith, member of the Franklin County Board of Supervisors representing much of the lake area, said COVID-19 brought a lot of new people to the county. She believes that will continue even if COVID-19 is now less of a factor.
“I think the environment that COVID-19 ignited is going to continue,” Smith said.
While Smith Mountain Lake is a popular tourist destination in the county, there is also another lake on the county’s southern side — Philpott Lake. Franklin County also boasts a vibrant music scene in downtown Rocky Mount with the Harvester Performance Center and a variety of recreational opportunities with its many parks.
The recent pandemic has given Smith Mountain Lake and the surrounding region two years of heavy tourism as well as an influx of new residents with more people working from home and deciding to relocate to someplace with better scenery. Those overseeing tourism in those areas are now looking to capitalize on the past two record years.
Bruns said the SML Regional Chamber of Commerce is using Datafy to find better ways to reach out and connect with those people who have visited Smith Mountain Lake as well as those that haven’t but may be interested in coming. He is also working to increase outreach to the community as well as the many businesses that make up the chamber.
Some of those outreach efforts include the many chamber sponsored events that will be making a return this year including the SML Wine Festival that has been canceled for the past two years due to COVID-19. Bruns said preparations are already underway for the event set for Sept. 17 and 18 at Mariner’s Landing.
Johnson said Bedford County will continue to promote its Destination Bedford marketing campaign that was kicked off in 2019 just before the pandemic as a way to continue attracting new visitors. Smith said Franklin County has hired a new staff member who is focused on tourism with the goal of continuing to build enthusiasm for Franklin County as well as Smith Mountain Lake into the summer.
Danville and Southside Virginia
Danville and Pittsylvania County are sandwiched between two major racing destinations — Martinsville Speedway and Virginia International Raceway in Halifax County — that help drive the largest draw for regional tourism.
VIR alone brings nearly 600,000 annual visitors to Southern Virginia with many of those people lodging, dining and shopping locally, said Corrie T. Bobe, the director of Danville’s Office of Economic Development.
In two years, Bobe believes that figure easily will be dwarfed by the Caesars Virginia resort that’s transforming a former textile site in what used to be the small mill village of Schoolfield.
Once up and running — sometime in 2024 — the casino resort is expected to bring more than 2 million visitors to the Dan River Region, setting the stage for the former textile and tobacco hub to become a tourism destination.
Just building the sprawling facility — including 500 hotel rooms inspirited by local scenery, a state-of-the-art casino floor and restaurants — will boost small businesses with construction jobs.
“This $500 million project is expected to need approximately 900 construction workers annually, which will have a direct, positive impact on our regional hotels, restaurants and retailers,” Bobe told the Danville Register & Bee.
The casino is expected to generate up to $38 million in tax revenue for Danville.
In general, tourism has already surpassed pre-pandemic levels in Southern Virginia. Before COVID-19 sidelined many activities, tourism spending brought about $391 million to the region. The Virginia Tourism Corp. estimates this year’s haul will be $471 million, a 20% increase before the pandemic.
“We understand that businesses within the hospitality and tourism sectors have seen significant improvement during the 2021 calendar year due to our major tourism assets being able to operate in a more regular fashion,” Bobe said. “In addition, there has been increased construction and business travel within our market associated with recently announced River District and industrial projects.”
The River District is what Danville calls its downtown, a revitalization effort a decade in the making. Once vacant storefronts now provide shopping and eating destinations not only for loft-living residents in nearby former warehouses, but it also draws tourists who want to experience the new vibe.
In addition, Averett University and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville and the Olde Dominion Agriculture Complex in Chatham attract “significant number of visitors to the region each year,” Bobe said.
A recent feasibility study found a spot next to the Olde Dominion Agricultural Complex in Chatham would be a good fit for a new hotel.
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