(Danville) — It appears the tourism spike everyone has been bracing for in Danville is well underway. And we’re still months away from the full casino opening.
Danville Finance Director Michael Adkins told City Council this week that hotel and lodging tax collections were far ahead of last year’s pace…mostly because of higher occupancy rates. “When you look at the average monthly stays for the first nine months of this (fiscal) year as compared to last year, you go from 17,703 per month last year to 20,735 this year,” Adkins told Council. “So that’s an increase of about three-thousand nightly stays per month as compared to last year.”
That adds up to an 18% percent year-over-year increase. Councilman Lee Vogler called the number, “staggering.” “Just think about three-thousand extra people in our city per month as compared to a year ago, which if I’m not mistaken, last year was better than the year before. We’ve been trending upward,” Vogler said. “And I would remind folks that is *before* some very large hotel projects come online. That is a fascinating number.”
The biggest of those projects is the permanent Caesars Virginia Casino and Resort on West Main. That should be open by the end of the year. But Mayor Alonzo Jones says this momentum is about more than just the casino. “There’s a lot of other things happening in Danville. We just heard from (Averett University President Dr. Tiffany) Franks and she says there are a lot of people coming into the area. There are all kinds of partners who are helping us grow these numbers,” said Jones.
Vice-Mayor Doctor Gary Miller says if Caesars’ predictions are true, then the city might need even more hotel rooms. “They said they would bring about five-to-ten-thousand people each week to town. And the casino is not even built yet,” Miller said.
Earlier this year, the city hired Revpar International to conduct a Market Hotel Survey. This will examine the demand for hotel rooms in Danville, and try to forecast what that demand will look like in the future.
One part of the study explores a potential hotel in the Cyber Park, which houses the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, along with several industries. The study will make recommendations on the size, quality, and type of lodging facility, and recommend the best brand chain for any hotel that locates in the park.
The study’s community-wide market evaluation will identity the types of hotels and the number of rooms that would best fit the market.
A survey last summer showed about 850 hotel rooms in the city of Danville. Pittsylvania has just the 81-room Hampton Inn in Gretna. The city picked up a handful of new rooms in late November when the Holbrook Hotel opened at the corner of Main and Holbrook streets. Those are not included in the 850 number.
Last month, Danville City Council approved a variance for a large new hotel on Riverside Drive. RMS Investments owns the property next to the existing Hampton Inn. They are proposing a 143-room, five-story hotel. It will be part of the Tru and Home2Suites brands.
A report last year showed the average hotel occupancy rate for the Danville-Pittsylvania area was around 60%.
Developers say demand will change once the permanent Caesars Virginia Casino and resort opens late this year. That will put Danville with well over a thousand available hotel rooms.