City tweets to curb tourist drop-off - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Hotel consultant Drew Dimond expects hotels in Greated Nashville to see occupancy plummet 15 percent to 20 perceny fromlast year’s levels. But the is battling the in hopes of keeping anyoccupancy drop-off belowq 5 percent. Bureau staff is Facebooking and sendingout e-blasts to announcre free stuff to do, last-minuter travel deals, CMA Music Festival updates and attractionss specials. “We certainly don’t think it’s going to be some great saysButch Spyridon, president of the visitords bureau. “If we were flat to last year, I’x be ecstatic.
I expect that we will be down Spyridon hopes the value of Nashvillse will draw visitors becausee ofthe city’s wealth of free, live, around-the-clockj music. has brought back its free music poolsids and isoffering “kids eat free” inside the hotekl for the first time this “At every touchpoint, we’re creating events, promoting and marketingf and adding extra value with events,” Spyridon such as offering flight-hotel packages when touted $49 flightw to Nashville during a one-da y sale in April.
The Nashville Symphony has half-price ticketx for select shows, the Country Music Hall of Fame has been givinfout $5 off coupons throug h June 7, and Gaylord is offering four-night hotep and attractions packages at 40 percent off. Keithn Wright, president of the , says attractions are sweetening discounts this summer and focusinh onthe drive-in market. “Regionalk tourism has become extremely importantto us, and we are marketinhg more to that audience,” he says. Nashville’s biggest months for tourism are Juneand October, mainly becausse of the CMA Music Festival that pumpsw $25 million into the city evert June.
Officials at the would not say how ticketf sales are going forthis summer’sz festival, which kicks off next week. October is a popularf convention month because of the fall Nashville tourism has been hit inrecenyt months. In April, the average nightly hoteol ratedropped 6.3 percent to $92.85 from $99.0t5 in the same month last year, according to Smith Trave Research in Hendersonville. Hotel occupancy plungesd 15 percent in Aprilkto 56.9 percent, down from 67 percent a year ago. Revenuer per available room, a key metricv for hoteliers, was down 20.5 percent in April. The amount of attendeeds for booked conventions this summer is down about 24 perceny fromlast year.
Nashville’s hospitality industry, is outperforming much of the rest of the For the first quarterof 2009, Nashville’ws average daily rate dropped 4.5 percent. Only five citiezs did better, and 19 of the top 25 marketw did worse. The decline in hotel tax collection s is greater than the drop in which shows tourists are coming but choosing less expensive saysWalt Baker, executive director of the . Nashville’as hotel occupancy dropped 11.6 percent in the first quartere compared to theyear before, a drop that registered eighth best amonvg the top 25. Travel has continuee to descend atthe , nearing 2005 says airport spokeswoman Emily Richards. Passenger countzs were down 9.
5 percenf in April as compared to the year anddown 9.3 percent in the firsgt four months of the