Carlsbad's tourism sector is having a banner year
It's official: Summer is back and the hotel industry is doing better than ever in Carlsbad.
This fiscal year, which started last July, the City of Carlsbad has collected the most Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), the tax that is charged to hotel guests, than it has ever collected.
City officials project that the city will bring in $16 million in TOT revenue this fiscal year, up from the $14.4 million that came in last year.
Already, the collected revenue for July through February ($11.6 million) is more than what was collected in fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11 ($11.5 million).
The city's occupancy rate is also on the rise. It has set 5-year records every month, marking the highest occupancy rates since Visit Carlsbad, the city's destination marketing organization, started collecting the data.
Last July, for example, the occupancy rate was 88.5 percent, up more than two percentage points from the previous fiscal year and up nearly 9 percent from 79.6 percent in 2010, during the peak of the Great Recession.
The same trend continued in August, when the occupancy rate was 84.3 percent, even as Carlsbad added hotel rooms.
"This shows that the public is feeling a little more confident about the economy and they're not holding back from traveling," said Sam Ross, executive director of Visit Carlsbad.
Hospitality and Leisure is the City of Carlsbad's largest key industry cluster, and the fastest-growing one, according to the city. More than 2.7 million people visit Carlsbad a year, and stay in the city's more than 4,000 hotel rooms.
Ross said the addition of a hotel at LEGOLAND California Resort, which opened last summer, had an impact in the uptick, as did Visit Carlsbad's online advertising push (the organization has been focusing all of its efforts on online marketing since 2009).
Christina Vincent, the City of Carlsbad's economic development manager, also said that the LEGOLAND hotel was a draw, and suggested that competitive prices are "providing opportunities for people who have not visited Carlsbad in the past to come, and those who could not return (during the recession) to come back."
Carlsbad's businesses, too, provide another way to market the city to out-of-towners.
"We continue to get more businesses, which means we have more business travelers, and many of them are choosing to stay longer to enjoy more of what Carlsbad has to offer," Vincent said. "I think businesses are our strongest ambassadors. They tell Carlsbad's story on a daily basis, they show how we live and how we grow."
It also helps, Vincent added, that Visit Carlsbad was able to market the city nationwide to a wide audience with diverse vacationing interests, including opportunities for family getaways, those who seek active outdoor recreation, and wellness resort and spa days.
Ross said Carlsbad is also an attractive destination for visitors because of the variety it its hotel stock.
"One thing that is unique about Carlsbad is that it has a price point for everybody's budget," Ross said, noting that the city's hotel inventory has a wide range of lodging, satisfying the needs of those who seek luxurious stay, those who are budget-conscious, families and everyone in between.
Moving forward, the City and Visit Carlsbad are seeking to find out how they can continue to post higher numbers. The City has launched a tourism study that will run throughout the year.
"It's going to be looking in-depth at the tourism industry in Carlsbad and will provide us with implementation strategies for the future," Vincent said.
It's official: Summer is back and the hotel industry is doing better than ever in Carlsbad.
This fiscal year, which started last July, the City of Carlsbad has collected the most Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), the tax that is charged to hotel guests, than it has ever collected.
City officials project that the city will bring in $16 million in TOT revenue this fiscal year, up from the $14.4 million that came in last year.
Already, the collected revenue for July through February ($11.6 million) is more than what was collected in fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11 ($11.5 million).
The city's occupancy rate is also on the rise. It has set 5-year records every month, marking the highest occupancy rates since Visit Carlsbad, the city's destination marketing organization, started collecting the data.
Last July, for example, the occupancy rate was 88.5 percent, up more than two percentage points from the previous fiscal year and up nearly 9 percent from 79.6 percent in 2010, during the peak of the Great Recession.
The same trend continued in August, when the occupancy rate was 84.3 percent, even as Carlsbad added hotel rooms.
"This shows that the public is feeling a little more confident about the economy and they're not holding back from traveling," said Sam Ross, executive director of Visit Carlsbad.
Hospitality and Leisure is the City of Carlsbad's largest key industry cluster, and the fastest-growing one, according to the city. More than 2.7 million people visit Carlsbad a year, and stay in the city's more than 4,000 hotel rooms.
Ross said the addition of a hotel at LEGOLAND California Resort, which opened last summer, had an impact in the uptick, as did Visit Carlsbad's online advertising push (the organization has been focusing all of its efforts on online marketing since 2009).
Christina Vincent, the City of Carlsbad's economic development manager, also said that the LEGOLAND hotel was a draw, and suggested that competitive prices are "providing opportunities for people who have not visited Carlsbad in the past to come, and those who could not return (during the recession) to come back."
Carlsbad's businesses, too, provide another way to market the city to out-of-towners.
"We continue to get more businesses, which means we have more business travelers, and many of them are choosing to stay longer to enjoy more of what Carlsbad has to offer," Vincent said. "I think businesses are our strongest ambassadors. They tell Carlsbad's story on a daily basis, they show how we live and how we grow."
It also helps, Vincent added, that Visit Carlsbad was able to market the city nationwide to a wide audience with diverse vacationing interests, including opportunities for family getaways, those who seek active outdoor recreation, and wellness resort and spa days.
Ross said Carlsbad is also an attractive destination for visitors because of the variety it its hotel stock.
"One thing that is unique about Carlsbad is that it has a price point for everybody's budget," Ross said, noting that the city's hotel inventory has a wide range of lodging, satisfying the needs of those who seek luxurious stay, those who are budget-conscious, families and everyone in between.
Moving forward, the City and Visit Carlsbad are seeking to find out how they can continue to post higher numbers. The City has launched a tourism study that will run throughout the year.
"It's going to be looking in-depth at the tourism industry in Carlsbad and will provide us with implementation strategies for the future," Vincent said.