Editor’s Note: This is the first in a multipart series looking at the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the Berkshires economy that is so highly focused on cultural tourism.
In 2020, with travel stymied and most stages shuttered, businesses across the county felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in their bank accounts. Revenues from hotel and inn bookings were down 31% and restaurant revenues were off 30% from March through the end of the year, according to State Department of Revenue tax reports.
Experts and economists have long generated hypothetical reports on the importance of the cultural economy and visitors to the region. 1Berkshire, the county’s state-designated Regional Economic Development Organization, reports that the tourism sector contributes nearly $900 million a year to the economy in the county.
Stephen Sheppard, professor of economics at Williams College, is seen as the leading expert on the impact of the tourism economy on the region. In his 2018 study of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he found that Tanglewood’s impact on the economic activity in the Berkshires exceeds $120 million per year.
Sheppard explained that, in a non-pandemic year, “more than 350,000 people attend Tanglewood concerts each summer, with nearly 84% visiting from outside of Berkshire County.” He added that the average visitor to Tanglewood spends approximately four days in the Berkshires.
State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D–4th Berkshire district), in a conversation with this reporter, estimated that the loss of a Tanglewood season alone would be crippling to the region’s economy, but that the impact of a season with all the venues closed would be unfathomable. “They are the economic drivers of the Berkshires. We depend so much on travel and tourism and hospitality,” said Pignatelli. “The creative economy is number one.”
The percentage of decrease totals more than $92 million in lost revenue from room bookings and restaurant bills in less than one year for business owners in the county. That level of decrease will have a major impact on municipal budgets in the coming year, as well. The drop in visitors will lower the tax money received by municipalities by over $2 million across the county.
And the actual numbers, as the pandemic continues and the final results are all reported, are expected to climb. According to local business leaders, the final losses for the hospitality industry are expected to top $150 million in the county.
The losses were felt throughout the Berkshires, but several towns — those most heavily dependent on tourism — were the hardest hit. In Lenox, according to the DOR report, restaurant sales are down $12.8 million or 44% from last year. Hotel and inn bookings in the town are down nearly $8 million, a drop of 28%.
Whitney Asher, owner of Brava Wine Bar and president of the Lenox Chamber of Commerce, said those numbers lined up with his own experience and with what he had heard from other business owners. “When you completely lose three months and then the restrictions keep numbers down after that, [the drop in revenue reported by the DOR] makes sense,” Asher said.
Asher also noted that the situation in 2020 gives the local business community the opportunity to quantify the impact of the cultural venues on revenue. “The summer numbers do show there is a tourist draw without the performances and museums.” Asher observed that things were not as bad as they might have been because there are still other reasons people are attracted to the Berkshires. “This year really can allow you to isolate how important those venues are and what they mean to your business.”
Lenox was not alone in seeing a major drop in hospitality revenue. Great Barrington, Lee, North Adams, Pittsfield, Stockbridge, and Williamstown all reported drops of over 20% in both restaurant and lodging receipts.
While the closure of major venues drove hospitality revenues throughout the county down more than 30%, the impact of the pandemic on the venues themselves has the potential to be even more devastating. For Berkshire Theatre Group, Barrington Stage Company, and Shakespeare & Company, more than 50% of their revenue in a typical year comes from ticket sales. In the next installment of this series, we will look at those three venues specifically and learn from their leadership how they survived 2020 and what, if it happens at all, a 2021 season will look like.
