through June 2020, the organization performed better than it had initially expected. It reopened with strict public health and safety guidelines, capacity caps and new virtual programs to keep visitors connected with Monticello and its grounds. The offerings include live guided tours of the site and a weekly livestream program featuring an actor who portrays Jefferson, as well as other guest scholars discussing historical topics. The 74 livestreams so far have generated nearly 700,000 views, Grim says. The organization still offers in-person


tours of Monticello, but those are self- guided and restricted to small groups. Private, behind-the-scenes tours also are available for groups of five people. Other outdoor activities, including


grounds-only ticketed tours and historical information stations, were a hit with tourists during summer and fall 2020, Grim says. The winter months drew more people


back to Monticello’s digital offerings, and beyond the pandemic, those virtual options may be here to stay, Grim says. “We are thinking


as we move forward, we will continue the digital way of connect- ing guests with the history of Monticello,” she says, adding that virtual offerings seem to “whet the appetite for people to go places” and make future travel plans. Meanwhile, after closing for most of the


Grim


2020 summer season, popular theme park Busch Gardens Williamsburg reopened for limited capacity, reservation-only events from August 2020 through January 2021. It also opened, by reservation only, on some weekends in February with plans to continue in March. As of early February, it was unclear whether the park would be able to increase its 4,000-person visitor capacity for the spring season, according to Cindy Sarko, Busch Gardens’ spokeswoman. The Kings Dominion amusement


park in Doswell was closed all last sum- mer due to the pandemic, marking the first summer season the park missed in its 45-year history. It reopened briefly for


a limited-attendance 2020 holiday season event but does not plan to reopen for the 2021 season until May 22.


‘A virtual standstill’ As for other tourism-related businesses,


hotels still are scrambling to fill guest rooms and make up for a devastating past year. Statewide, hotel occupancy was down


about 49% in 2020, compared with 2019, says Vinod Agarwal, a professor of econom- ics at Old Dominion University and deputy director of the university’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. The center produces reports using data from STR Inc., a CoStar Group division that provides global hospitality market data. Across the country and in Virginia,


hotels located in large metropolitan areas were most impacted by the pandemic because they rely on corporate business, which is largely driven by airline travel, Agarwal says. For example, hotel occu- pancy in the Washington, D.C., metro- politan area, which includes Northern


Monticello photo courtesy Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello Vinod Agarwal photo by Mark Rhodes


www.VirginiaBusiness.com


Virginia, was down 94% in 2020, com- pared with the prior year. “Business travel simply went away,” he


says, adding that he expects video confer- encing, Zoom and other virtual methods for meetings and conventions to stick around for a long time. “Business travel will not be the same


as it used to be,” Agarwal says. High-end hotels


appear to have suffered the most from lack of travelers, because much of their business came from conventions and corporate meetings. Typically, corporate travelers bring more than hotel business to a city. While there, they also spend money on entertainment, sporting events, retail and more. That kind of business is “bread and butter” spending for large metropolitan areas, Agarwal says, adding, “until those things come back, the big markets will continue to suffer.”


VIRGINIA BUSINESS


Though Monticello was forced to close for more than three months due to the pandemic, its virtual livestream program generated 700,000 views and outdoor tours also were popular.


Agarwal


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