Centre County gives another boost to tourism efforts with American Rescue Plan Act funds
A portion of Centre County’s American Rescue Plan Act money will be used to continue to boost a local tourism industry that has improved since the start of the pandemic but now faces the challenge of winter months.
The county commissioners awarded Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, the county’s official destination marketing organization, a $250,000 grant for a three and a half month winter marketing campaign.
This is the second grant the commissioners have awarded HVAB through its ARPA funds. In the summer, the commissioners awarded a $250,000 grant for a summer destination marketing campaign to grow visitation to Centre County and help with economic recovery. That proved to be successful, Fritz Smith, president and CEO of HVAB, told commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting.
The summer marketing campaign helped to generate $8 million in visitor revenue, Smith said. The hotel occupancy demand for weekends in July outperformed 2018 and 2019, he said, and exceeded Pennsylvania and the U.S.’s average occupancy rate during the campaign period in August. Compared to other similar sized college towns, Centre County placed fifth for occupancy, whereas it usually ranks nine out of nine.
“This rescue plan money to stimulate a campaign was helpful because it attracted people to come to Centre County during that time and it got us out of the basement and it got us into a competitive position versus some of those other towns,” Smith said.
Hospitality jobs are at 97% of what it was pre-COVID, Smith said.
“Quite frankly, we think it would be higher but as we all know employers are having a difficult time not only in that sector, but lots of industries across the country. So that sort of absent workforce right now is a big part of we think why we didn’t get there,” Smith said.
Through a partnership with Expedia, deals are available on its website for Centre County hotels and bed and breakfasts. It generated 1,709 room nights, whereas previous similar promotions didn’t generate anything near that, Smith said. Short term rental bookings, such as VRBO or Airbnb, doubled in July and August compared to July and August 2020. He said people who traveled in July 2020 were “getting away” to Airbnb and VRBO listings in places like Centre County.
Despite the success of the summer campaign, Smith said HVAB is still in a challenging position. Business travel isn’t quite where they’d hoped it would be. Hotel occupancy, visitations and attractions from late November to mid-March is typically at its lowest point, he said, generally between 35-55%.
“We think that absent any stimulus and any additional advertising that we’d actually be lower than that, which would actually make it a challenge to keep the employment levels at the level we want them to,” Smith said. “We think a bridge campaign will keep Happy Valley top of mind as consumers seek travel destinations. And the winter campaign will help us to reinforce the notion that this is a four season destination of leisure travel, sports and business travel.”
For the winter campaign, HVAB will use the successful tactics from the summer campaign and focus on a smaller radius, including markets in Harrisburg, Hershey, Pittsburgh, Erie and Scranton. It will emphasize performing arts and outdoor winter experiences and activities, as well as winter sports at Penn State. Commissioner Mark Higgins applauded HVAB for highlighting performing arts especially in the winter. He said seeing dance, live theater and concerts lifts spirits and chases the “winter blahs” away.
Smith said they expect to generate around $5 million in visitor spending.
Commissioner Michael Pipe said that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Centre County was on track to be a $1 billion tourism economy. He said the board recognizes that when the tourism economy is strong, the county is strong. Commissioner Steve Dershem added that the community has traditionally depended on hospitality jobs.
“We need to keep our finger on the pulse of what we can do to keep our economy strong because a lot of folks — really, if these jobs collapse, they will never come back. And that’s tough on our community and stuff on our families. So I think this is a good investment,” Dershem said.
Additionally, the commissioners allocated $13,440 of ARPA funds to purchased 1,200 rapid COVID-19 tests for the Centre County Correctional Facility. Previously, the tests were provided by the state’s Department of Health. The county is also paying the Nittany Mall $1,000 to cover utility costs associated with the AMI testing site, which has been extended through at least the beginning of 2022.
Centre County received more than $30 million in ARPA funds.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 5:00 PM.
