Daytona 500 attendance is limited. Here's what it means for Volusia tourism.
Jim Abbott
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
For Volusia County's tourism industry, still struggling to stay afloat in the continuing coronavirus pandemic, news of limited attendance at the Daytona 500 represents yet another unwelcome challenge.
"It certainly will not be good for us," said Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County. "It will greatly affect us in reservations and people who are usually coming to the 500 race."
Davis said he needed to know more information about how much attendance would be affected before he could better estimate the impact of the decision.
"How many seats are they talking about?" Davis said. "They haven't said. Is it 100,000? They are not telling you. My concern is people who have booked reservations in advance, where does that leave them? I'm not being critical. That is their business decision. I just need more information."
While officials at Daytona International Speedway, which holds 101,500 spectators, stopped short of putting a number on what the reduced capacity would look like, the two most recent Daytona Cup Series races in August — the Go Bowling 235 and Coke Zero Sugar 400 — had estimated crowds of 10,000 and 25,000, respectively.
The 63rd running of the Daytona 500 is scheduled for Feb. 14.
No decisions have been made about limiting attendance to next month's Rolex 24 At Daytona, scheduled for Jan. 30-31. Officials with the Speedway said nothing has been finalized regarding potentially reducing spectator capacity at the 59th Rolex or the Roar Before the Rolex 24, set for Jan. 22-24.
Before the pandemic, races such as the Coke Zero on the Daytona 500 routinely filled much more of the grandstand and the infield area available for RVs and campers.
Although that won't be the case at this year's race, the Daytona Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau applauded the careful approach to safety amid the pandemic.
"While we look forward to when there will once again be 100,000+ attendees in the grandstands, we appreciate the careful and strategic way the Speedway is handling this pandemic and keeping its visitors — and everyone else involved — safe," Kate Holcomb, CVB director of communications, said in an email.
Even with fewer fans in the stands, the race still generates interest in the destination, Holcomb said.
"By running these 2021 events, the Speedway continues to garner millions of dollars' worth of positive publicity for our destination, and that continues to be very much appreciated," Holcomb said. "It's an amount of exposure that we couldn't afford to purchase, and the attention is truly worldwide."
'A tough situation' for hotels
At the same time, this week's announcement is another dose of unwelcome news for hoteliers.
"This is not something I wanted to hear," said Gary Brown, longtime owner of the 91-room Sun Viking Lodge in Daytona Beach Shores.
Brown already has roughly half of his hotel booked by guests headed to the February race, he said.
"About half of those rooms are booked by vendors that may or may not decide to come now," Brown said. "It all depends on what limits they put on the amount of people they allow in. Certainly, it will make things very competitive if you have 50% of race fans coming to town and have 100% of the hotels trying to snatch them up. It's a tough situation."
Area hotel managers are bracing for a tough winter season, as the number of COVID cases is soaring nationwide and this week surpassed 1 million cases statewide in Florida. On top of that, the crucial influx of Canadian snowbird visitors isn't arriving this year due to travel restrictions at the U.S.-Canadian border aimed at preventing spread of the virus.
Even key annual events, such as the Turkey Run classic car show over Thanksgiving weekend at Daytona International Speedway, haven't generated the typical occupancy and revenue for many hotels. It's likely that a portion of potential visitors heeded recommendations from healthcare officials to avoid travel and large gatherings over the holiday weekend.
Some hoteliers this week offered the outlook that if the industry could endure the slow winter season that momentum would return with Speedweeks, spring break and Bike Week events in the spring.
Brown seems more skeptical of that prospect now.
"Typically, we are very slow during the November, December and January months," Brown said. "The thought is that we always have that race week to look forward to and if we can make it to race week the season starts. Now there may not be a big season to look forward to, so I'm wondering what happens at that point."
Davis said that the Speedway's decision about the Daytona 500 indicated that the impact of the coronavirus certainly would extend into 2021.
"I'm not a scientist and I don't want to get into the political realm, but if government officials had done their homework in advance we wouldn't be where we are today. The whole country is not on the same page and we are paying the consequences. If we had been proactive, perhaps we could have curtailed some of the epidemic that is destroying our sports, our Florida and our nation as a whole."
Looking ahead, Davis said the destination must continue to remind potential visitors that it is a clean, outdoor travel alternative amid the pandemic.
"There is no question we have to continue to do that," Davis said. "We cannot rely on the special events. The strategy has to be that we continue to get the name of Daytona Beach out there, that it's clean, there's clear fresh air and the beaches are wide open. Hotels are totally sanitized with extraordinary dollars spent. What else can we do?"
Holcomb, of the CVB, said that the destination's marketing plan is fluid to respond to needs dictated by the pandemic.
"It speaks to the wide open spaces and social distancing opportunities that our area has to offer — beaches, green spaces, trails, golf, outdoor dining — but it also reminds potential visitors that when the time is right for them to travel, we expect them to 'Visit Responsibly.'"
'Sign of the times' in COVID era
Jim Berkley, general manager of the 744-room Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, the area's largest hotel, offered hope that if COVID cases come more under control that Daytona 500 attendance limitations could be eased.
"Limiting spectator attendance is a negative for the whole destination," Berkley said. "However, it is simply a sign of the times in today's world. The reduced attendance will have many concerning economic ripples."
The impact of the decision will be severe for the area's tourism industry, said Manoj Bhoola, president and CEO of Ormond Beach-based Elite Hospitality Inc.
Elite's roster of area hotels includes the Ormond Beach Best Western Castillo Del Sol; the Best Western Plus International Speedway; Hampton Inn by Hilton Daytona Speedway Airport; and the Hilton Garden Inn at Daytona Beach International Airport.
"This will be catastrophic for a destination that relies so heavily upon a few special events," Bhoola said. "This is the crown jewel weekend for the majority of Volusia County's hotels."
News about the reduced capacity didn't come as a surprise to Rob Burnetti, general manager of the 212-room Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach Shores. Still, it's an unwelcome reality, he said.
"It's just a battle we've been fighting all year," Burnetti said. "I don't know that we do anything differently than we have at this point. It was a tough week. If you look back, the Daytona 500 was really the last big event we had in town not fully affected by COVID and I think a lot of us were hoping that it (the upcoming race) would mark some kind of turning point.
"The fact that they are allowing fans at all is something we should be thankful for," Burnetti said. "Right now, we're calloused over with bad news, so all you can do is shrug your shoulders, move on and hope for better things the rest of the year."
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