Is Myrtle Beach starting to see a drop in vacation travel due to COVID-19 concerns?
Roseyln Montgomery should be celebrating her first birthday in Myrtle Beach.
For nearly a year, her family planned their trip from Kansas to the Grand Strand. It was a chance to celebrate the birthday and her parents’ 10th wedding anniversary. Relatives were joining them, baby beach tents were bought — heck, the family even hired a beach photographer.
In May, the airlines started to change their flights. News reports started about people visiting Myrtle Beach and then testing positive for COVID-19. Last week, Kansas ordered that anyone who visits South Carolina has to quarantine for two weeks upon return.
That was it. The Montgomery family had no choice. Their Myrtle Beach trip was off and they spent Roseyln’s first birthday on Tuesday getting a snow cone in their suburban Kansas City home instead of on a Grand Strand beach.
“That’s how we’re celebrating,” Roselyn’s mom, Ashli, said as she choked up talking about how their travel plans were ruined.
A decrease in travel?
Families across the country face the same dilemma — should we cancel our Myrtle Beach trip?
South Carolina’s Grand Strand has been labeled a “coronavirus hot spot” as cases swell. There have been 4,845 confirmed cases in Horry County as of Tuesday, with more than 4,300 of those cases coming after June 1.
The New York Times reported that South Carolina now ranks third in the world in the number of new cases per million residents, behind only Arizona and Florida.
Myrtle Beach hotels started taking new reservations in mid-May and then Memorial Day weekend began the traditional summer tourism season. Horry County’s jump in cases coincided with those two events.
Myrtle Beach and other municipalities passed ordinances requiring masks to help slow COVID-19’s spread. But, those laws have only been in place for days.
The jump in cases has led to news coverage in both Myrtle Beach and across the country. News organizations are also reporting cases in their states tied to recent trips to South Carolina. The trend has even garnered national attention.
Social media is filled with comments and questions on whether travel to Myrtle Beach is safe. Some have said they canceled their trips because they didn’t want to get sick or be required to wear a mask.
Hotel occupancy rates in Myrtle Beach have seen a slight dip compared with 2019, but not the massive drop predicted in March and April. For the week of June 21-27, the weekend had a hotel occupancy of 88.8 percent in 2020, down from 92.7 percent in 2019. The late June numbers are the latest figures provided by the Coastal Carolina University Clay Brittan Jr. Center for Resort Tourism.
The same group also found a significant increase in the percentage of short-term rentals being reserved. For the week of July 4-10, 2019, 70.2 percent of those rentals were reserved two weeks in advance. That percentage is up to 97.7 percent in 2020. The center found at least 90 percent of short-term rentals are booked for July.
Even as the numbers show a crowded Myrtle Beach, there are noticeable signs that there is less traffic in town this week than earlier in the summer. Congestion is thinner on main drags, the Chic-fil-A on Mr. Joe White Avenue had only a handful of cars in its drive-thru at dinner time, not its usual line that wrapped around the restaurant three times.
It’s a drop off seen by one of the area’s largest hotel operators.
“I think there have been articles in the New York Times and Washington Post, a story on CNN, the governor of West Virginia, lately a spokesperson in New Jersey all targeting Myrtle Beach as being a hotspot, and those have been very damaging,” said Matthew Brittain, president and CEO of Brittain Resorts & Hotels. “I think there is other bad press out there, but if you’re asking for the real reason we have been down in bookings, it’s those.”
Brittain Resorts runs 10 oceanfront hotels in the area, including seven in Myrtle Beach. He said bookings are down about 20 percent this week compared to the same week in 2019.
While there are reports of people falling ill after vising Myrtle Beach, Brittain conceded there is no way to know how or when someone contracted the virus. He added he believes the vast majority of Myrtle Beach area businesses are following proper safety protocols.
“It’s not like we’re providing an unsafe environment,” Brittain said. “If you come to Myrtle Beach, you stay in one of our hotels, you eat in one of our restaurants, all of our employees are doing what they’re supposed to do, we’re half capacity in restaurants, we’re wearing masks in restaurants, we’re doing the things the CDC recommends,” Brittain said.
Brittain does not believe the new mask ordinances have led to a decrease in tourism so far. “I think that might even help,” he said. “I’m not an expert in that and don’t intend to be, but I think wearing masks shows people you’re trying to protect them.”
Cancellations have hurt hoteliers this week, but Brittain said there are some signs that they will rebound as the weekend draws closer.
“It’s not going to be as strong as it would have been without this press,” Brittain said. “There is some last-minute booking, it’s not like we don’t have any bookings, so we could do well this weekend, but you won’t know that until Thursday or Friday. We are getting a lot of last-minute bookings.”
Canceled vacations
Lacy Kelly and her family planned to visit Myrtle Beach later this month from Tennessee but canceled after the mask ordinances went into place. Two of her family members have asthma, so medically they can’t wear a mask. They contacted their hotel to see if they could skirt the rules and were told they could not, Kelly said.
“It’s just something we can’t do,” she said.
Kelly also expressed concern about being told to wear a mask in general and some media reports about the severity of the coronavirus.
“We’re very disappointed,” Kelly said as the family is forced into other vacation plans.
Ohio resident Angelo Donatelli figured 2020 would be like every other year for their family. They would rent a condo for their extended family and spent time on the Grand Strand. Then the news started about cases, masks and travel.
“It’s been on my radar that we need to cancel for some time,” Donatelli said.
Ohio required residents to quarantine for two weeks when they return from South Carolina and for Donatelli that wasn’t an option. Their family relies on his wife’s paycheck while he is on his summer teaching break. There were also concerns of being the only ones on the beach wearing masks and family in the condo not taking the threat seriously.
In Ohio, they have a bit of control of who they see and where they go, Donatelli said. On vacation, a lot of control is lost.
“When you’re on vacation you have no idea what you’re being exposed to,” he said.
So for the Donatelli’s the annual trip is off and now they are waiting, hoping, to come back next year.
So long as the pandemic ends.
“We really enjoy Myrtle Beach,” Donatelli said, “that’s our spot.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 3:04 PM.
