Gas, food prices may affect local tourism season

Emily Adams-Bentley, The Times-Tribune, Corbin, Ky.
·3 min read

Jun. 16—CORBIN — The weather is nice, school is out and the summer tourism season is in full swing but with the rise in gas prices nationwide, will Corbin see a decrease in tourism numbers this season?

In a typical summer, Corbin sees the biggest chunk of their revenue coming in during the summer months but with gas and food prices continuing to skyrocket, Corbin Tourism Director Maggy Monhollen said it is very possible that won't be the case this summer.

"Human sentiment and human actions are sometimes really hard to gauge and that's what makes things so uncertain and scary," Monhollen said. "We are at a point right now, economically, where the price of food, the price of gas, the price of clothing — it's punching people in the gut."

Corbin typically generates $80,000 in transient tax and $700,000 in restaurant tax during their peak tourism season, which Monhollen said was between April and August, which is approximately half of the revenue Corbin sees in a year.

As prices continue to rise, it is unclear what kind of revenue Corbin will generate this year, as people are beginning to look at travel a little different this summer.

"We're worried, we're a little fearful about how this season will shake out," Monhollen said, especially with many of tourism's supporting industries still recovering from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

Monhollen said that thankfully for Corbin, 2021 turned out to be a huge comeback year but unfortunately for small businesses, the current rise in prices will likely set them back once again.

"The rise in prices is really hard on local business, particularly those in the restaurant industry," Monhollen said, with restaurants' profit margins going down as food prices rise. "But the restaurants can't out-price themselves to where people can't get out."

The higher prices will cause a domino effect on the entire local economy, Monhollen said.

Originally, experts in the tourism industry were predicting that people would still travel but find other ways to cut back on travel costs, such as eating out less or choosing expensive restaurants to spend their money at or looking at budget hotels rather than a full-service hotel. Monhollen said that might just be Corbin's "saving grace."

"A benefit of Corbin is that we're an affordable location," Monhollen said, citing Corbin's distance to larger cities and the type of tourism activities in the area that will likely help to drive tourists into the area. It may also encourage locals to stick around and enjoy a "staycation" rather than driving hours to another state or destination.

Overall, Monhollen said she definitely expects the rise in prices to have an impact on the revenue Corbin brings in but right now, it is hard to determine how much of an impact it will have.

"If we only see a 10 percent reduction in revenue this year, I'll be ecstatic," she said. "Ten percent is quite a bit but if we can get by with no more than a 10 percent reduction in revenue generation, then we're going to be OK. If we survived the pandemic, then obviously we're going to be OK."