Flat is the new up, as the business folk are telling one another these days.
Translation: If you’re not making money but at least not losing it, you are doing better than those businesses that are sinking deeply into the red. In the midst of a recession, staying even looks good. But if you are in the food, beverage or tourism business in the District, you are looking better than if you are in Bethesda or Rosslyn. That is especially true of restaurants.
“Our businesses in the District are in much better shape than our restaurants in the suburbs,” says Paul Cohn of Capital Restaurant Concepts. It owns eateries such as Paolo’s in Georgetown and Reston. “We’re holding our own downtown. Flat is the new up.”
Like I said.
Judging from figures released last week by Destination DC, the city’s convention and tourism group, visitors to the national capital are helping keep us afloat. Tax revenues are down, commercial building transfers have headed south, storefronts are struggling — but travelers keep showing up. “Even with challenges in the economy, the meetings and tourism industry brought more than five and a half billion dollars to D.C. for the second year in a row,” Destination DC President Elliott Ferguson said.
Judging from figures released last week by Destination DC, the city’s convention and tourism group, visitors to the national capital are helping keep us afloat. Tax revenues are down, commercial building transfers have headed south, storefronts are struggling — but travelers keep showing up. “Even with challenges in the economy, the meetings and tourism industry brought more than five and a half billion dollars to D.C. for the second year in a row,” Destination DC President Elliott Ferguson said.
For us locals, the summer comes with choking diesel fumes from buses on the National Mall; for city coffers, those fumes smell like money. According to Destination DC, more foreign travelers discovered D.C. last year. Their numbers were up 22 percent. They helped drive visitor spending over $5.6 billion and generated $618 million in tax revenues. That’s a lot of McDonald’s lunches and hotel room stays.
The visitors spent more on food than on lodging. “Hotel and lodging expenditures remained flat,” according to the study. Last year 16.6 million people visited D.C. The greatest number by far came from the United States; 1.4 million traveled from abroad.
This year we might not to so well, the organization says, and the forecast looks worse in 2011. If not for the Obama bump from the inauguration, 2009 might be a bust. Hotel occupancy was up nearly 4 percent in January, packed by nearly 2 million who came to witness Barack Obama’s swearing in. The average cost of a hotel room rose nearly 50 percent and reached $274; since then occupancy and rates have declined.
What could bring more travelers to our fair city? The Smithsonian museums and the Mall are hard to beat; I would say we need more funky neighborhoods and better shopping, modeled after San Francisco.
What could make tourists flee? Crime. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has to keep her heel on the necks of the Capitol Police to patrol the tourist haunts. As for projections, IHS Global Insight says: “Visitation is expected to remain relatively flat through 2012.” But that’s good, right?
