Travel to central Ohio has made a comeback after the pandemic, but one group has been slow to return: business travelers.
In Dublin, hotels used to have the highest occupancy Monday through Thursday when business travelers would come in for meetings at Cardinal Health, Wendy鈥檚, Quantum Health or other major headquarters. Now, Monday to Thursday occupancy is around 50 percent 鈥� down from the near 80 percent of 2019, said Visit Dublin, Ohio CEO Scott Dring.
Dring said that after the pandemic, the leisure market rebounded thanks to a pent-up demand to travel. When it comes to corporate travel, though, companies are doing business in a different way.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot more Zoom calls, Teams calls. They don鈥檛 need to come to the corporate office as much as they have in the past,鈥� Dring said.
He said there鈥檚 no creative marketing campaign that can incentivize companies to bring people into their corporate offices if it doesn鈥檛 fit their business model.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot more Zoom calls, Teams calls. They don鈥檛 need to come to the corporate office as much as they have in the past."Scott Dring, Visit Dublin, Ohio CEO
Slow rebound
Columbus is on track to meet, or maybe exceed, its pre-pandemic occupancy numbers. That鈥檚 almost all leisure, though, said Experience Columbus Chief Sales Officer Dan Williams.
鈥淚 know there are some other cities that have much stronger business transient than we do, and it's rebounded quicker,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淏ut from a standpoint of Columbus, where it may not have been our biggest strength in the past, it is much slower to come back for us.鈥�
About a half dozen businesses headquartered in the greater Columbus area did not respond to a request for their current business travel model.
The Ohio State University鈥檚 travel office, however, reported that this year, the university will likely return to a pre-pandemic volume of travel.
OSU鈥檚 pandemic travel restrictions for staff, students and faculty were lifted in June 2021. Before that, the university took advantage of the opportunity, and sometimes necessity, of doing business remotely, said Marie Peterson, OSU's Travel Expense Manager.
OSU鈥檚 athletes, researchers and faculty travel for a wide variety of reasons, which may make it an outlier among Columbus鈥� major employers.
Travel trends
The good news for tourism in central Ohio is that travelers are bringing in just as much money, even in cases where they鈥檙e coming in smaller numbers. That is in part because nightly rates for hotels are higher than ever.
Most Ohio communities have a bed tax, which refers to an extra tax for staying in a hotel, motel, or short-term lodging. The money generated supports entities that market their areas, like Visit Dublin, Ohio and Experience Columbus, but also has additional beneficiaries.
In Dublin, part of the bed tax goes to the Dublin Arts Council. In Columbus, it funds the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, along with arts programs and nearly 40 health and human resource service organizations, among others.
The Columbus tax generated almost $50 million in 2019, and almost just as much in 2022, thanks to inflation and because there are more hotels and rentals.
"We're not a one-week destination like, you know, Miami Beach or Sarasota."Scott Dring, Visit Dublin, Ohio CEO
Inflation might also be helping central Ohio鈥檚 tourism industry in another way. As travelers look to maximize the bang for their buck, they鈥檙e taking more, shorter weekend trips, typically within a short driving distance, Dring said.
鈥淲hich helps us to cater to us, because we're not a beach destination, we're not a one-week destination like, you know, Miami Beach or Sarasota or wherever it might be,鈥� he said.
Another trend in travel is "bleisure," which is a combination of business and leisure travel. Come for a meeting, but tack on a few extra days for fun. It鈥檚 not a new idea, but Dring said it鈥檚 been happening more.
He thinks it鈥檚 another way people are trying to maximize their trips and save money, especially in cases where travel is covered by a company.
Dring doesn鈥檛 think business travel will ever get back to where it was before, but that just means the tourism industry needs to adapt.
