BY DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com
A year ago, the outbreak of a global pandemic pulled the plug on one of the Oregon coastal economy’s most important weeks of the year – spring break.
Restaurants were ordered closed. Tourists cancelled hotel and motel reservations by the thousands. Shops and galleries emptied as travel restrictions kept the usual throng of beach visitors at home.
“Basically, it was annihilation,” said Jamie Michel, general manager of Sweet Homes Vacation Getaways in Waldport. “It was the spring break that never was.”
With 2021’s edition rolling out this weekend, it’s clear that a surprising rebound — one that actually started late last summer — is well underway.
Significant obstacles, to be sure, remain.
Hotel operators, in particular, report up and down the coast that they can’t find enough employees to replace the thousands who were furloughed in the pandemic’s wake last year. In some cases, that means those who are working will be facing six-day workweeks during and after spring break.
But one year on, those still in business say they have learned how to adapt to circumstances that can change in a flash. And those lessons will on full display next week as operators brace to accommodate the crush of visitors heading for the coast.
“It’s going to be the busiest spring break we’ve ever had,” said Anthony Muirhead, general manager of the Adobe Motel and Restaurant in Yachats. “It’s going to be as busy as any week in August next week.”
A combination of government stimulus checks, sufficient vaccination levels to make people comfortable to travel, and expected good weather are creating the “perfect storm” for coastal spring break travel, Muirhead said.
Robust bookings indicate that at least 100 of the hotel’s total 110 rooms will be full all week, he said.
“All along the coast, even with the Covid restrictions that are still in place,” Muirhead said, “the lodging industry is financially stable at this point.”
Travel by the numbers
Supporting the apparent uptick in coastal travel and spending with hard data is difficult, since economic reports always lag several months behind what’s happening in real time. The most recent state employment information is based on what happened in February.
But it’s obvious that a turnaround is well underway, said Erik Knoder, a state economist whose work focuses on mid-coast counties.
“I live in Corvallis, but drive to the coast frequently,” he said. “And every time I make that trip these days, Highway 20 is just booked. Nothing but streams of cars heading into Newport.”
That picture of bustling commerce is dramatically different from the one that unfolded last year, when Lincoln County led the state in both tourism job losses and overall unemployment rates.
The county lost 4,460 jobs from February through April of last year, said Knoder, a figure proportionally more than any county in Oregon. A considerable slice of the county’s employment relies on tourism, and the loss of 2,640 jobs – more than 60 percent – in leisure and hospitality in those two months reflected that, he said.
“That was just unprecedented,” Knoder said. “And while it will take a couple of months to know just what will happen over this spring break, it’s clear things are coming back a little bit.”
Another indication of a recovery are the nightly lodging taxes that Lincoln County and cities collect.
Although they were shut down or had restrictions on their use for part of last spring and summer, lodging taxes collected during the height of the pandemic showed that motels and vacation rentals were not hit as hard as other sectors of the coastal hospitality industry.
In Yachats, taxes paid by motels and vacation rentals from July through January totaled $780,000 – or about 80 percent of a normal year.
For motels and vacation rentals in unincorporated areas of Lincoln County, lodging taxes collected were up almost 17 percent – to $2.27 million – from July through December compared with the same period of 2019, according to Jayne Welch, the county’s treasurer. The year-over-year increase was especially significant – 58 percent – from October through December.
“If I had to estimate, I would say vacation rental use is up substantially,” Welch said.
Based on recent weekend traffic counts, in fact, local officials are crafting messages telling travelers to expect the type of bumper-to-bumper traffic that are already evident on portions of U.S. Highway 101.
“From what we’re seeing, this will definitely be a spring break that shakes the foundations,” said Dave Price, director of Oregon Coast Community College’s Small Business Development Center. “For people who are stir crazy and looking to get out, we’re the immediate option.”
Bouncing back
At the Drift Inn Restaurant and Hotel in Yachats, owner Linda Hetzler said she is seeing clear indications that the buzz is back.
“Like a lot of folks I’m talking with, we have been getting bookings like crazy,” she said. “But fall was strong here, too. Really, things have been picking up steadily from late last summer.”
Hetzler, as with many other operators, is aware that a good number of permanent coastal residents, many of them retirees, are anything but wild to have wave after wave of incoming visitors. In acknowledging that, she and others continue to observe and encourage practices such as wearing masks and social distancing that health officials say have saved countless lives during the pandemic.
She also plans to keep permanently the glass windows now hanging around each table as a way to prevent the spread of germs among diners.
“People like them,” Hetzler said. “They provide more privacy and seem to make everyone breathe just a little easier.”
No ‘Gray Wave’
One segment of the population notably absent from the coast so far this year is the so-called “Gray Wave” – older, retired travelers who in past years provided reliably solid weekday bookings for hotel and motel operators.
“With the virus still so prevalent, they are not quite comfortable to visit us yet,” said Josh Conrad, general manage of the Best Western Agate Beach in Newport. “It’s as simple as that.”
Conrad has seen other changes, as well, including the absence of the business-training and association travel that in past years has filled his 300-person capacity ballroom. It’s a trend that has played out across the country, as large, in-person business events have largely been replaced by teleconferences.
“This week two years ago, I had a 250-person group in the hotel,” he said. “Just two weeks ago, that same group consisted of 10 people.”
Although his food and beverage receipts are down by almost 50 percent from past years, the room side of the business is helping offset those with solid weekend bookings from in-state residents who aren’t vacationing this year in places such as Hawaii or Mexico.
“As for spring break, it’s always a big deal,” Conrad said. “And, all in all, I’m doing much better than I’d expected.”
Another silver lining for travel in the Lincoln County is that the county’s risk level for Covid-19 appears likely to remain “low” through spring break. That translates to fewer restrictions and, likely, the public’s confidence that in-state travel can be done safely.
Campgrounds ready
Spring Break is also regarded as the unofficial opening of camping season in Oregon, and several developments appear likely to only underscore that this year.
The Forest Service campground at the base of Cape Perpetua opened this week after being closed since last September, when unusual east winds raked western Oregon, knocking down more than 40 trees and damaging many campsites.
Forest Service day-use areas on Cape Perpetua – Devil’s Churn, the visitors center and Cook’s Chasm/Thor’s Well – were “extremely busy” during the pandemic, said visitor center manager Vicki Penwell. More than 100,000 vehicles a year use those parking areas, she said.
But the Forest Service is still trying to determine when it will be safe enough for visitors and volunteers to open the popular visitors center, which closed last March. Penwell said she expects it to be at least six weeks or longer before opening.
“I know everybody is hoping sooner than later,” she added.
After a year-long closure, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department on Monday opened its popular Beachside State Recreation Site north of Yachats for camping and day-use. Demand was such that, in less than a day, the favored campsites along the ocean were filling.
Elsewhere in the state parks system, 2021 spring break numbers are roughly on par with pre-Covid visitation rates in 2019, said Paul Reilly, coastal regional program manager for the department. A slight downtick in tent sites is likely to be counter balanced by increased reservations for sites with power and electricity, he said.
“From staffing levels to individual campgrounds, we are trying to get as close to normal as possible,” said Dylan Anderson, who manages state parks in the mid-coast area.
Josh and Amanda Lang of Portland were one of the first to take advantage of Beachside’s reopening.
They and their two young children pulled in Tuesday, road testing the Airstream trailer they purchased in January. Josh Lang, a Navy Reserve commander and a pilot for American Airlines, said the family initially expected to visit Hawaii and fly around the country after moving here from Pensacola, Florida last April.
Instead, they found themselves grounded, said Amanda Lang, who grew up in Eugene.
Pointing to the Airstream, she said, “This is our plane without wings. We need to get out.”
Chances are, they’ll have plenty of company next week.
- Quinton Smith of YachatsNews contributed to this report
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. He can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com
Lincoln County was moved today from Lower Risk to Moderate Risk. More cases and hospitalizations. Now we have mobs of people here so that status is more likely to rise not go down to where we were. See it for yourself here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/18VuGq2IaoymH2xNroPOKFe_palWgc-T_/view