Tourism is surpassing 2019 levels: ‘A very exciting time in Northern Kentucky’

This story originally appeared in the March 1, 2024 edition of the LINK Reader. To get stories like this first, subscribe here.

Five years ago, Northern Kentucky’s tourism industry was on an upward trajectory. The industry’s economy was booming, furthered by the growing urban development.

“When we look at the economic impact, tourism generated about $1.5 billion of impact in Northern Kentucky in 2019,” said Julie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of meetNKY, the tourism and convention services bureau of Northern Kentucky. “These are really strong numbers. We call them ‘top-of-market numbers.’”

Then in early 2020, the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic turned life upside down. As life moved indoors and behind computer screens, the tourism industry’s growth came to a screeching halt.

Yet four years later, having emerged from the dark days of COVID, Northern Kentucky has made a full recovery, Kirkpatrick said.

About 2 million of 2.8 million total hotel rooms were booked in the region in 2023, she said, in comparison with 1.9 million of 2.6 million total rooms booked in 2019. Visitors paid an average of about $121 per night for a hotel stay — a $15 increase from pre-pandemic times.

Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore can attest to the substantial rise in hotel stays. According to Moore, over 20 hotels and counting have been built in Boone County since 2019, and they consistently tout at least 75% occupancy rates.

“Our tourism and visitor numbers are extremely strong. Very few communities could compete with that kind of success,” he said. “We did see, of course, because of mandatory closings by the governor and by the state, impact on hotel occupancy for a period of time, but it bounced back very quickly.”

Further, meetNKY research reveals that the total economic impact from tourism has risen to over $2 million since before the pandemic — at least a $500 million increase since 2019 — and is continuing to grow as the months go on.

In addition to the post-pandemic attendance spikes at popular tourist attractions such as the Newport Aquarium and Ark Encounter, Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati have experienced a number of significant events that drew crowds of tens of thousands of people — the return of BLINK, the Cincinnati Music Festival and the Taylor Swift Eras tour, to name a few.

“Really, all of the tourism assets are growing by double-digit visitation,” Kirkpatrick said.

CVG airport data confirms that the number of people coming to the region is picking up once more.

“We had seen several years of record-breaking growth leading into the pandemic. Of course, like a lot of other airports, we saw about 90% of our passenger traffic just dropped overnight,” said CVG spokesperson Mindy Kershner. “But we’ve been able to regain all, if not more, of that traffic in certain parts of the year.”

According to Kershner, passenger volumes for the Northern Kentucky region are trending higher than ever during busy leisure travel periods such as spring break, summer vacation and the holidays.

“We ended 2023 with about 8.7 million passengers, and pre-pandemic in 2019 I think we served about 9.1 million,” said Kershner. “Leisure travel is high and is above normal, but if you look at business travel, that’s the part that might be a little slacking still.”

The bounceback in numbers may be attributed to the airport’s expansion of services for customers. CVG recently added two new airlines to its service — British Airways and Breeze Airways — meaning more passengers can get nonstop flights to where they need to go. 

“When you have a mix of carriers, it really helps keep that stimulation of travel going and is able to keep air fares at a good price,” Kershner said. “We’ve been happy to be able to say we’ve had the lowest fares in the region for several years now.”

The spike in tourists may be significant news for Kentucky cities, as officials have recently proposed introducing further income tax cuts throughout the state if it were to meet certain economic conditions. 

“If you didn’t have $2 billion of tourism receipts in the economy, it would be a really big problem,” said Kirkpatrick. “It generates a lot of taxes. Those taxes would have to be made up by local taxes, state taxes, a lot of payroll taxes … sales tax at the state level. Not having as vibrant of a tourism industry as we do in this region would absolutely impact that.”

Some cities have already made the move to increase their revenue through tourism sales. Last year, Bellevue proposed the idea of increasing its restaurant and sales taxes in order to raise money to reconstruct the Marianne Theater.

According to City Administrator Frank Warnock, once the theater is reconstructed, events could be held there that would draw tourists to the city, who would then fill local restaurants and bars.

“Folks would go to the concert venue, and it fills up all the bars and restaurants and stores when those concerts are happening and all hotels are filled. … And people (would) spend a lot of money as a result of the restaurant tax,” he said. “It can do a lot of good if it’s managed correctly. It will increase business for restaurants if it is managed correctly.”

While the idea is still in discussion, Warnock said Bellevue’s tourism industry is already thriving, even without the tax, and has surpassed 2019 levels.

“The events that we sponsor to try to bring people to the city have been very successful,” said Warnock. “There’s more people coming here now than ever.”

Some of these events include themed First Fridays and Sunday Farmers Markets. Additionally, Bellevue has created an entertainment district on Fairfield Avenue, established an interlocal agreement with neighboring city Dayton to allow driving golf carts on the road, and even temporarily renamed a city street “Taylor Swift Avenue” in honor of the Eras Tour in June 2023.

“That brought a lot of folks to Bellevue who would not have otherwise come here,” Warnock said. “That event generated roughly 330,000 hits to our website and Facebook page.”

All in all, Kirkpatrick said Northern Kentucky residents should expect to see continued growth over the next five to 10 years, especially as cities start accommodating more amateur sports teams and making spaces more outdoor-friendly.

“We’ve all got big plans. We all in the entire region partner together to keep that engine going,” she said. “I think we’re at a very exciting time in Northern Kentucky.”