Washington COVID rate pushes local tourism

Brook Wilder said she’s seen more than her fair share of weary travelers, but none as weary as the guests she’s seen lately.

“Everybody’s just tired of COVID,” the manager of the Blackwell Hotel in Coeur d’Alene admitted. “I think everybody’s just looking to get away, especially from Spokane.”

Wilder said she could hardly blame them. Spokane County is waiting to move into Washington’s own version of stage three, which would open up restaurant dining rooms and movie theaters while once again permitting non-essential travel. That transition will likely be postponed after Monday’s announcement that the county has seen 842 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, including more than 360 cases since Memorial Day weekend. That rate falls well outside Washington’s requirement of 25-or-fewer new cases per week before allowing an area to move into phase three.

Gov. Brad Little’s four-stage opening was significantly faster than Spokane’s and looks nothing like the Lilac City. While Idaho opened in reliable cadence statewide — from churches and day cares to restaurants and businesses to bars and theaters to everything else — Washington’s “Safe Start” program applies its different stages to different regions across the Evergreen State based on the rate and impact of community spread.

While nonessential Idaho businesses have been open since May 15, their Spokane counterparts opened as recently as June 5, and only after applying for specific permission to do so.

So the reasonable desire to enjoy a city’s amenities during the pandemic have inevitably brought Spokane residents here.

“And not just Spokane,” Wilder corrected. “We’ve had guests come from the Tri-Cities, Seattle, even south in Boise. People just want to get away. People are just tired of sitting inside all day.”

Wilder estimated that more than half the hotel’s visitors have come from Washington since Idaho began to open up from its stay-home order. The Blackwell is far from the only business in Coeur d’Alene’s hospitality industry to see this trend, though some of those statistics are deceiving.

The percentage of guests at the Roosevelt Inn in April, for example, shows a 100-percent out-of-state occupancy share. Everyone who stayed in the iconic Coeur d’Alene hotel that month came from Washington. But the math doesn’t quite tell the whole story.

“We had one person visit us from Camino Island,” co-owner Tina Hough said. “A very nice woman was staying with us while she was looking for a new home here. But then the coronavirus happened, and she just hunkered down with us, and we weathered it together … Thank goodness for her, or we wouldn’t have had any customers in April.”

The Roosevelt’s full April spreadsheet tells a much more grim picture.

That lone Camino Island woman represents the hotel’s entire guest list in April, a 5-percent occupancy rate in a month that usually signifies the start of their busy season.

“It’s been very tough,” Hough admitted. “From a Christian point of view, we’ve seen the Lord’s hand working miracles to help us, but we’ve seen the worst first quarter we’ve had in 22 years. It’s been devastating.”

But that devastation might be in the Roosevelt’s rear-view. Despite an April occupancy rate that was a fraction of their normal 40-to-50-percent, the hotel’s numbers have recently began to mushroom. The Roosevelt usually sees an occupancy rate approaching 60 percent over the first weekend in June. This year, that number hit 80 percent.

Hough said she sent out 10,000 emails, spreading the word that Idaho has now entered stage four, the last phase in Little’s plan to re-open the state. So far, it’s paid dividends, particularly from the other side of our western border.

“Right now, we’re back to seeing what it normally would be,” Hough said. “Spokane is our bread and butter, so the fact that we’re open when other places are still (restricted) has really helped.”

“From the responses we’ve been getting, Washingtonians are excited to live so close to somewhere that’s open,” Emily Boyd of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association said. “Our guests are excited to be able to get out of their houses, do some shopping, break out a little bit and relax.”

While Little’s first few stages of his Rebound Idaho plan made entertaining Washingtonians all but impossible due to restrictions requiring out-of-staters to quarantine for two weeks upon entry, Boyd said the easing of restrictions have also eased the Downtown Association’s fears.

“Just speaking on behalf of many of our businesses downtown, we’re all very appreciative of tourism from outside Idaho,” she said. “They’ve taken such a toll with everything that’s been going on so far this year.”

It’s a problem Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce CEO Derrell Hartwick said requires a careful approach.

“Obviously, we’re putting out our protocols for visitors coming in from out of state to be respectful,” Hartwick said. “We talked with Panhandle Health about the best ways to accommodate them while keeping everyone safe. And the general consensus is to offer whatever we can to keep everyone safe. That means having masks available, hand sanitizer, sanitizing businesses and making sure employees are promoting a healthy atmosphere.”

Roosevelt co-owner John Hough said establishing an understanding with its guests that a push to maintain a sanitized environment reinforces both healthy habits and healthy commerce.

“It’s definitely getting better,” he said. “For us and for them. Things are looking up.”