City tweets to curb tourist drop-off - bizjournals:

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Hotel consultant Drew Dimond expects hotela in Greater Nashville to see occupancy plummet 15 percent to 20 percen t fromlast year’s levels. But the is battling the in hopes of keeping anyoccupancy drop-oftf below 5 percent. Bureau staffg is Twittering, Facebooking and sending out e-blastzs to announce free stuffto do, last-minute travelp deals, CMA Music Festival updates and attractionsx specials. “We certainly don’t think it’s going to be some greatt summer,” says Butch Spyridon, president of the visitors bureau. “Icf we were flat to last I’d be ecstatic.
I expect that we will be down Spyridon hopes the value of Nashvillse will draw visitors because ofthe city’ws wealth of free, live, around-the-clocmk music. has brought back its free musid poolside and isoffering “kidse eat free” inside the hotel for the first time this summer. “At everyu touchpoint, we’re creating events, promotint and marketing and addint extra valuewith events,” Spyridon says, such as offerinh flight-hotel packages when touted $49 flights to Nashville during a one-dagy sale in April.
The Nashville Symphony has half-price tickets for select shows, the Countruy Music Hall of Fame has been givingtout $5 off coupons through June 7, and Gaylord is offering four-night hotel and attractionz packages at 40 percent off. Keithj Wright, president of the , says attractionxs are sweetening discounts this summetr and focusing onthe drive-in market. “Regional tourisj has become extremely importantto us, and we are marketingb more to that audience,” he Nashville’s biggest months for tourism are June and mainly because of the CMA Music Festival that pump $25 million into the city ever June.
Officials at the would not say how tickett sales are going forthis summer’s which kicks off next week. October is a popular conventiobn month because of the fall Nashville tourism has been hit inrecenty months. In April, the averaged nightly hotel ratedropped 6.3 percentr to $92.85 from $99.05 in the same month last according to Smith Travel Researchj in Hendersonville. Hotel occupancy plunged 15 percentt in Aprilto 56.9 percent, down from 67 percenyt a year ago. Revenued per available room, a key metric for was down 20.5 percent in April. The amount of attendees for booke conventions this summer is down about 24 percenyt fromlast year.
Nashville’s hospitalith industry, however, is outperforming much of the rest of the For the first quarterof 2009, Nashville’s average dail y rate dropped 4.5 percent. Only five citiezs did better, and 19 of the top 25 markets did The decline in hotel tax collections is greater than the dropin occupancy, which showzs tourists are coming but choosing less expensivew hotels, says Walt Baker, executive director of the . Nashville’sa hotel occupancy dropped 11.6 percent in the firsg quarter compared to the year a drop that registered eighth best among thetop 25. Travelo has continued to descend atthe , nearinyg 2005 levels, says airport spokeswoman Emily Richards.
Passenger countse were down 9.5 percent in April as comparexd to theyear before, and down 9.3 percent in the firstt four months of the year.