TSA reports significant spike in travel over Labor Day weekend, resort destinations aim to extend the summer season, and the HD Awards ceremony goes virtual. All this and more in this week’s Five on Friday.
New York City cautiously gets back to business
After suffering greatly from COVID-19 in the spring, Manhattan is slowly—and carefully—beginning to emerge. Last week, the Edge observation deck reopened 100 floors above Hudson Yards, reports Thrillist. The pandemic caused the sky-high attraction to shut down just two days after its initial March debut. Local restaurant owners breathed a small sigh of relief earlier this week when Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced indoor dining can resume at 25 percent capacity starting September 30th. Other stipulations include temperature checks at the door and one customer per party must provide contact information for contact tracing, according to The Wall Street Journal. And things are looking up for fine dining restaurant Eleven Madison Park, which had disclosed in May that it was at risk of permanently shuttering. The three-Michelin-star establishment struck a deal with its landlord and secured enough funding via loans to eventually reopen, writes Eater.
TSA sees highest number of travelers since March
Last week, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported its busiest day since travel restrictions were implemented and air travel plummeted in mid-March. Heading into Labor Day weekend, the agency screened 968,673 passengers on Friday, September 4th, reports Travel + Leisure. While that number is significantly lower than the 2.2 million individuals who passed through TSA on that same day one year prior, it gives hope for airlines, which saw the slowest day this year on April 14th, when only 87,500 people were screened.
The potential impact of “Zoom towns”
In an opinion piece, Bloomberg columnist Conor Sen predicts how the influx of remote workers in vacation hotspots could affect these areas in the long term. Many beach and mountain towns—like the Hamptons in New York; Truckee, California; Bend, Oregon; and more—are seeing surging home prices, dwindling inventory, but no major construction boom as remote workers leave densely populated cities for a change of scenery. “The way this probably will play out is home prices in these communities soar during the next 12 or 24 months as pandemic buyers bid for whatever dwindling housing inventory remains,” Sen writes. He compares the shift to virtual work to how air conditioning grew communities in the Sun Belt region, but also points out that many of these areas could lack the infrastructure—and even desire—to become bustling metro areas.
Resort locations look to stretch the summer season
A shift in lifestyle means a shift in vacation stays. According to The New York Times, resort, hotel, and business owners in popular destinations are enhancing their offerings to stay relevant and attractive as fall approaches. This means everything from packages that include a “business butler” to assist with printing and scanning needs at Gurney’s Newport Resort & Marina in Rhode Island to the introduction of remote educational programs at the Coppola Family Hideaways’ portfolio of resorts in Belize, Italy, and beyond. “Since the pandemic freed many workers from their offices and prevented children from attending school in person, flexible vacations—or what some call ‘flexcations’—have been on the rise,” reads the article.
The 16th annual HD Awards ceremony goes virtual
After closely monitoring the risk and impact of COVID-19, HD has made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s HD Awards ceremony. Initially scheduled for Tuesday, October 20th at Cipriani 25 Broadway in New York, the celebration will be hosted online Thursday, October 22nd at 11 a.m. EST. “We are disappointed that we can’t come together in person, but we are excited to create a dynamic, interactive virtual program with the honorees and judges that showcases some of the year’s best,” said Stacy Shoemaker Rauen, editor in chief of Hospitality Design and senior vice president of design at Emerald, the brand’s parent company. Stay tuned for more details and registration information in the coming weeks.
