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New office to provide snapshots of tourism industry
By Holly Fisher
Supplements Editor
John Crotts is combining his scholarly research interests with a desire to explore issues facing the hospitality industry in Charleston.
Crotts heads the new Office of Tourism Analysis in the College of Charleston’s Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management, which will oversee the development of the Office of Tourism Analysis that is set to open in July.
The office is a partnership among the college, the Charleston Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. Its task is to provide reports and information about the status of the Lowcountry tourism industry.
“We’re trying to work with the businesses here to strengthen them,” explains Crotts, associate professor and director of the Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management. “What is driving the fluctuations? Weather? Consumer confidence? This is where we’re delving in to answer those questions.”
Crotts is working with Wayne Staats, a College of Charleston assistant professor of computer science, to develop a Web-based software program that will allow hotels, attractions and restaurants to track occupancy rates, visitor totals and financial data.
Next month the program will be set up for motels, hotels, inns, bed and breakfasts, and resort properties to track occupancy rates, groups sales and projected business.
Crotts consulted with property representatives on what information they would like to track.
Each week, these representatives log onto the Web site with a username and password, then they enter information about how their business performed the pervious week, charting rooms available, rooms sold to visitors, rooms sold to groups and the average daily room rate. That information will generate reports on occupancy rates for the week as well as revenue per available room—an important indicator of profitability.
Properties will also look ahead four weeks, entering information on rooms sold to visitors vs. rooms sold to groups.
Once 70% of the participating properties have entered their data, they can generate reports. While individual property information will not be available, there will be aggregate data allowing properties to measure themselves against comparable businesses.
Doing this on a weekly basis, provides a clear picture about what is driving tourism trends, Crotts says. Over time, a history will develop, and property owners can access and compare annual data.
Program expansion
By the fall, the software program will be available to restaurants and attractions. Crotts also has met with representatives from those industries to determine what information should be tracked and what data is most useful.
The attractions industry will be tracking walk-up visitors vs. groups.
Restaurants are interested in patrons’ average check amount and financial information, such as the percentage of labor cost and percentage of food cost compared to total sales.
Crotts expects it will take time for businesses to get into the habit of supplying information. But one incentive is that businesses cannot access any information, if they have not submitted their data.
The need for information
The program is free to members of the chamber’s Travel Council and will be a member benefit for the Greater Charleston Restaurant Association. Those members can access data anytime, and information will also be available to the CACVB sales staff and other agencies like the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
The CACVB relies on local, regional and national research to make all its marketing decisions, explains Perrin Lawson, CACVB deputy director, so having such a wealth of information at hand is a great benefit.
“Our biggest challenge has been getting our hands on as much of (the data) as we’ve needed,” Lawson says. “It’s just that there weren’t the resources available to take it to the next level.”
The Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management is part of the School of Business and Economics, so Lawson points out that economists will be available for data analysis. And with the college’s new hospitality and tourism management major launching this fall, Lawson notes that students will be able to assist with research and data collection.
Using the data
The Office of Tourism Analysis plans to share its software program with other destinations, particularly those in state, because the office receives state funding, Crotts says.
“We’ll have the weekly—and sometimes daily—pulse of how the industry is doing. We didn’t have that before,” Crotts says.
Lawson says this new information should make the CACVB more effective in promoting the area. He notes that educational level and household income are key characteristics of visitors the CACVB hopes to attract to the Lowcountry.
People visit Charleston for many reasons—history, beaches, recreation, culture, arts, restaurants and shopping—so the key is leveraging assets and not depending on any one particular attraction, he says.
“I hope this will enable us to be smarter about how to go about attracting the type of visitors who are more beneficial to the community—those with the greatest economic impact,” he says. “It’s not about attracting more people; it’s about increasing the expenditures of the people we do attract.”
Holly Fisher is the supplements editor for the Business Journal. E-mail her at editorial@crbj.com.
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