As tourism data for 2023 shows a dip over last year, Myrtle Beach City Council members and Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune expressed concerns about occupancy and revenue.
Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s lodging dashboard showed this year’s occupancy forecasts through September 30 were down by 20%.
This after MyrtleBeachSC News learned that a concerted effort was made by some members associated with merchants and the City of Myrtle Beach to have MBACC C.E.O. Karen Riordan removed from her position.
The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce receives over $24 million annually in funds collected in the City of Myrtle Beach. However, much of Riordan’s board is made up of merchants and leaders from other beach towns. Those beaches are seeing better tourism numbers than those posted in the City of Myrtle Beach.
Sources informed us that, while the City of Myrtle Beach contingency wanted Riordan fired, Board Members from other areas described her as among the best administrator in Horry County.
In total the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce receives $54 million in tax subsidies to promote the Myrtle Beach area.
Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce responds to some more recent data ahead of Labor Day data on Friday.
Myrtle Beach’s tourism has fluctuated over the last few years – from strong numbers in 2019 to post-pandemic booms in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, the era of inflation, higher prices, and labor shortages, Myrtle Beach City Council members have expressed concerns about recent data.
Projections are down nearly 20% from last year.
Councilman John Krajc said Tuesday, “I’d be interested in seeing what we’re up to for the year, because if we’re down 22% in revenue par, that concerns me more than if occupancy is down four percent.“
“In my opinion, many restaurants are experiencing a 20 to 25% drop in business, and my concern is that, on top of that, there are labor cost increases, insurance premium increases, the cost of having music piped in, food costs, and credit card fees that they cannot charge consumers,” Mayor Brenda Bethune said.
In this economic climate, there are concerns about credit card balances being elevated, government expenditure handouts being reduced, impacting Myrtle Beach tourism numbers directly.
The president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, Karen Riordan, said at Tuesday’s city workshop that they are looking at tourism data from the week of August 13, but overall, they are pulling up state figures, since occupancy continues to be strong.
According to Riordan, those numbers are down about 3% to 4% from 2022.
Inflation was certainly going to be a factor in 2023, according to her philosophy.
According to Riordan, 2021 and 2022 are anomalies due to limited travel options post-pandemic and the current economy leaving people with less money for vacations.
In her address to the council, Riordan assured the council that there should be no cause for concern about the tourism data. “We are tracking well – just not as well as we were in 2022, when profitability became our highest level ever from a hotel perspective. In 2023, we set out to benchmark ourselves against 2019, which was the solid high year before COVID.“
Riordan said they are looking forward to a fall influx through November as we normalize back to 2019 tourism levels.
In 2024, she said, “We’re less reliant on families and summer vacationers, and more reliant on group business. In order to fill that pipeline for 23 and 24, and for 25; not only at our convention center, sports center, ballparks, but also in our hotels with conference facilities, is one of the things we have been working hard on.“
According to Riordan, this is the first year that group business has returned since pre-pandemic in 2019. The chamber hopes to use those bookings to boost weekday lodging rates in the future.
The chamber also hopes a series of end-of-year events will draw additional tourists to Myrtle Beach, but such events have not significantly moved tourism numbers up in previous years.