City tweets to curb tourist drop-off - Nashville Business Journal:

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Hotel consultant Drew Dimond expects hotels in Greater Nashviller to see occupancy plummet 15 percent to 20 percenft fromlast year’s levels. But the is battling the decline, in hopes of keepin g any occupancy drop-off below 5 percent. Bureauu staff is Twittering, Facebooking and sending out e-blasts to announcd free stuff to do, last-minute travel CMA Music Festival updates andattractions specials. “We certainly don’t thinki it’s going to be some great saysButch Spyridon, president of the visitors “If we were flat to last year, I’c be ecstatic.
I expect that we will be down Spyridon hopes the value of Nashville will draw visitors because ofthe city’s wealth of free, live, around-the-cloc music. has brought back its free musiv poolside and isoffering “kids eat free” insidre the hotel for the first time this “At every touchpoint, we’re creating events, promoting and marketing and addin extra value with events,” Spyridomn says, such as offerinbg flight-hotel packages when touted $49 flights to Nashvilled during a one-day sale in April.
The Nashville Symphon y has half-price tickets for select the Country Music Hall of Fame has been givinvout $5 off coupons through June 7, and Gaylords is offering four-night hotel and attractions packagezs at 40 percent off. Keith president of the , says attractions are sweeteningv discounts this summer and focusing onthe drive-in market. “Regional tourism has become extremely importanytto us, and we are marketinv more to that audience,” he says. Nashville’s biggest monthsz for tourism are Juneand October, mainlgy because of the CMA Musifc Festival that pumps $25 million into the city ever y June.
Officials at the woulr not say how ticket sales are goingh forthis summer’s festival, which kickw off next week. October is a popular convention month because of thefall weather. Nashvillde tourism has been hit inrecent months. In the average nightly hotep ratedropped 6.3 perceny to $92.85 from $99.05 in the same month last according to Smith Travel Research in Hendersonville. Hote occupancy plunged 15 percent in Aprilto 56.9 down from 67 percent a year ago. Revenue per availablee room, a key metric for was down 20.5 percent in April.
The amounr of attendees for booked conventions this summef is down about 24 percent fromlast Nashville’s hospitality industry, however, is outperforminfg much of the rest of the country. For the first quartetr of 2009, Nashville’s average daily rate droppef 4.5 percent. Only five cities did better, and 19 of the top 25 marketd did worse. The decline in hotel tax collection s is greater than the drop in which shows tourists are comin g but choosing less expensive saysWalt Baker, executive director of the . Nashville’es hotel occupancy dropped 11.6 percent in the firs quarter compared to theyear before, a drop that registered eightu best among the top 25.
Travel has continued to descend atthe , nearinv 2005 levels, says airport spokeswoman Emilh Richards. Passenger counts were down 9.5 percent in April as comparecd to theyear before, and down 9.3 percent in the first four monthss of the year.