Michigan's tourist towns wait out coronavirus, hope to save season

On the morning the PGA canceled the big tournament that tees off annually across the street, Brady Cohen looked around the pretty, sun-soaked grounds of the The Inn at Harbor Shores in St. Joseph and considered the mounting toll of the coronavirus.

“Yeah, it’s just been pretty brutal,” said Cohen, the general manager of the resort, where 90 of the 106 hourly employees have been laid off.

“We’ve closed down the inn and the PGA event is a huge one for us Memorial Day weekend. That’s got a large effect on our business,” he said Thursday.

The senior tour event comes to the Harbor Shores golf course every other year, and the hotel, along the St. Joseph River and a few thousand feet from Lake Michigan, is the primary residence for the players and many others. But not this year, with the state, nation and world in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s terrible for the economy,” Cohen said. “But health and safety are important.”

All along the Lake Michigan shore, the wiped-out workers in the tourism and hospitality businesses seem to have achieved the same realization. They welcome everyone and their money, but not right now.

Yet the welcome signs will be displayed again, and when that time finally comes, they believe business will boom.

“We’re going to work on a lot of internal projects, landscaping and some things with staff and just try to keep some of our people employed and busy,” Cohen said. “And then, hoping for mid-May, late June, things returning, maybe, back to normal.”

State and local tourism officials say that uniformly, from Holland and St. Joe’s, to Muskegon, Traverse City and Mackinac Island, one of the prime pumps of the Michigan economy is lagging badly.

Anticipating the summer season is fraught with peril because so much is unknown.

But the U.S. Travel Association is forecasting a negative impact on tourism from the coronavirus six times larger than the dropoff after the 9/11 terror attacks.

State tourism officials say the forecast for the year has been reduced by 31%.

March saw the uniform cancellation of meetings and conferences that are the traditional filler in resorts around the state for the gap between the last snowflakes and the first whoosh of a swinging golf club.

“April and May, while they’re not the biggest months of the year by any stretch of the imagination anywhere, it has certainly affected business travel greatly,” said Dan Sippel, executive director of the West Michigan Tourist Association.

“There’s a lot of major events that are shut down, and that results in losses not only to communities but hotels and individual businesses.

“But the hope is that we can get ramped back up by the time our primary season does begin,” Sippel said.

In fact, some people are perfectly happy not to see tourists or the return of seasonal residents anytime soon.

Traverse City Mayor Jim Carruthers told warm-weather residents last week not to travel Up North, but to shelter in their primary homes where services are more available than in resort communities.

In a prominent public statement, the Grand Traverse Health Department said: “The increased population to the northern Michigan area puts a substantial strain on our communities.

“During this public health crisis, many rural communities may not be equipped with personnel, supplies or resources for a surge in population.”

Some along the Michigan shoreline, from the state line to Traverse City, say they have noted the return of some part-time residents. But it does not appear to be a significant influx.

“I think cabin fever is starting to set in, and Illinois is a shelter-in-place state, as well,” said Sally Laukitis, chief executive of the Holland Area Visitors Bureau. “People are feeling, man, if I have a second place to go to and it is a little bit of a change of pace.

“We just want people to be smart, and we are encouraging them to be healthy and safe.”

State parks, recreation areas and trails have remained open. But due to a surge in visitors at state parks over the last two weeks, the Department of Natural Resources said it noticed “many instances of improper social distancing.” Medical experts recommend staying at least six feet apart.

Because of “a drastic increase in visitors,” the department closed the Tippy Dam Recreation Area in Manistee County this week.

In venues along tourist strips, like U.S. 31 through Grand Haven, Muskegon and Traverse City, conferences and business meetings were removed from the schedules of hotels beginning a few weeks ago.

Some have reverted to offering free meals and discounted rooms to truckers, who are hard-pressed to keep the supply chains moving as the pandemic builds.

“Certainly, the back half of March and April have been pretty much decimated,” said Scott Reinert, executive director of the South Haven/Van Buren County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“But if we’re able to weather the storm over the next two or three months and salvage part of our summer season, then we hope to walk out OK with our lodging and restaurants and shops and so forth.”

Among the major events canceled is the Tulip Time Festival of Dutch heritage in Holland. Scrapping the early-May festival puts a $48 million hole in the social and commercial calendar of the area, officials said.

In a conference call among organizers of the festival and downtown businesses, talk turned to brainstorming about adjusting and bringing Holland back from the crisis.

 “For 90 years, we’ve been celebrating Tulip Time,” said Sally Laukitis of the visitors bureau. “This would have been our 91st Tulip Time celebration.

“We’re talking about some sort of virtual tours of Holland, just to help keep us relevant. Maybe a social media drive through our six miles of tulip lanes.”

In Muskegon, officials express concern about the launch next year of the city's expanded civic center.

“We are in the midst of selling the convention center and selling this area as a meetings and convention destination,” said Bob Lukens, executive director of the Muskegon Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This will disrupt our plans.”

Dave Lorenz, the vice-president of Pure Michigan, said the coronavirus is having the same impact on tourism in the state as it is on many facets of life.

“This is a serious situation, potentially devastating for Michigan’s travel industry,” he said.

 “But one of the things that makes travel and tourism such an important thing to Michigan is that we can come out of recessionary and difficult times very quickly, with proper promotions and at the right time.

“We will be prepared, and we are already positioning ourselves, to handle that pent-up demand that is already starting to build,” he said. “People are already going through cabin fever. They are already going to Michigan.org and doing their dreaming and planning.”

gkrupa@detroitnews.com