Nantucket hoteliers buy a private Caribbean island for their latest resort
Here’s how New England hotels and resorts are getting ready for summer travelers
If you’re itching to ramble after being cooped up at home, you’re not alone. But what changes awaits you once you arrive?
The novel coronavirus has wreaked havoc on nearly all parts of the economy, but few have been hit quite so hard as the travel industry. When #StayHome is a globally trending hashtag, it’s not a great time to be in the hotel business.
By early May, weekly travel spending in Massachusetts was down 93 percent year over year, according to the US Travel Association. And due to the tourism standstill, New England was losing $40 million in state and local tax revenue every single week.
That may not improve anytime soon in Boston, where the near-term viability of major tourist draws — museums, theaters, conventions, concerts, sporting events — remains in limbo. But innkeepers in some of New England’s more bucolic destinations are cautiously optimistic about salvaging a summer vacation season, albeit a slow one. There’s hope that, after being housebound for months, people will be ready for a change of scenery.