The Indiana Business Review’s economic forecast for Bloomington lists tourism as one of the top industries affected by the pandemic.
Visit Bloomington’s executive director Mike McAfee says Bloomington was down about 40% last year in revenue from tourism and hospitality. And he says recovery is happening slowly.
“We’ve regained about 40% of what we lost last year. We’re still trailing way behind 2019 levels, which is kind of our bench mark of what we want to get back to.”
McAfee says he expects Bloomington to recover about 80% of its losses by the end of 2021, and it will take a couple more years to recover the rest.
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He says one example of this loss can be seen in the local innkeeper’s tax, which dropped about 40% from 2019.
He adds that he’s also watching food and beverage expenditures. In March, they were about $25 million and, in April, about $27 million.
