Tourism almost back to pre-pandemic levels, Monhollen tell city commission

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck forcing businesses and restaurants to shut down and people to stay inside, it is no secret that the tourism industry was the hardest hit sector of the economy.

Fortunately, the tourism industry has largely bounced back to where it was pre-pandemic, Corbin Tourism Director Maggy Monhollen told to the Corbin City Commission during its regular monthly meeting Monday.

Monhollen said that 2021 economic impact numbers for tourism have been released, which show that tourism is back to 96 percent of what it was in 2019.

In 2021, there were 70.5 million visitors in Kentucky, who spent $7.7 billion across the Kentucky economy. The total economic impact of tourism in Kentucky in 2021 was $11.2 billion, and tourism sustained 83,100 jobs and generated $810 million in state and local tax revenue, Monhollen said.

“Tourism works in Kentucky,” she added.

In Whitley County during 2021, tourism sustained 708 jobs and tourism resulted in $16.1 million in labor income. In addition, tourism generated $8.6 million in state and local taxes and resulted in $103.7 million in visitor spending in Whitley County.

In the Daniel Boone Country Region, which includes 16-18 counties, there have been an additional one million visitors over the last two years, she said.

“I was very excited to receive these numbers. Tourism continues to be on the rise and I fully suspected that the 2022 impact numbers will show that we made a complete recovery,” Monhollen added.

Also, during Monday’s meeting, the city commission authorized City Attorney Bob Hammons to take action regarding new state legislation regarding the transient room tax that will require online booking platforms to pay the transient room tax for rentals in the city limits directly to the Corbin Tourism Commission, which is the entity that collects the tax and utilizes it.

Hammons noted that the legislation added short term rentals to the list of places, which must pay the transient room tax, which is also known as the motel/hotel tax.

Monhollen explained that a short-term rental is defined as any stay less than 30 days, and House Bill 8 includes all platforms, such as Airbnb and Vrbo.

There are currently five Airbnb sites in Corbin, Monhollen noted.

She said that as the law previously stood, tourism directors had to scour the Internet looking for the rentals and then contact the platforms directly trying to collect the transient room tax.