AUSTIN, Texas — March usually means spring break for many students, though some universities have opted out of spring break and are having three-day weekends instead.
Yet, spring break is one of the reasons that Austin Mayor Steve Adler wants to keep the health authority rules about masking and distancing, despite Gov. Greg Abbott lifting the statewide mask mandate and business restrictions.
"To take away the state mandate just a couple of days before spring break starts is the wrong time to do that, to take away the mandate when we're seeing more variants of the virus come into our city is just the wrong time to do that," Adler told KVUE on Thursday. "If this community would just keep wearing the masks and requiring masks a little while longer, it's going to increase the speed at which we can return to greater normalcy."
Austin-Travis County now faces a battle against the State over the rules, after the Texas attorney general filed a lawsuit against the local governments.
All of this is happening at a time where leisure travel recently started ticking up both seen through statistics at airports and hotel occupancy levels.
While February's passenger traffic data for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) won't be released for at least another month, airport spokesperson Bryce Dubee told KVUE that overall for January, passenger traffic was down 67.6% with 414,177 passengers, compared to 1,278,473 in January 2020. He added that they're seeing an uptick from February into March.
"So what we've really been observing over the past few weeks is passenger confidence starts to resume, some with more vaccines going out and things like that – we have seen a slight uptick trend as far as travelers going through TSA security," he said. "We are seeing some travelers who are choosing to travel and those numbers are going upwards. It's not an overall large spike. It's something that's being reflected in airports around the country."
Using AUS's activity reports, below is a graph that shows the overall amount of inbound and outbound travelers at AUS since January of 2020.
On the hotel and lodging side of things, there has also been a slight uptick leading up to March.
According to STR, a global hospitality data and analytics company, hotel occupancy in Austin's Central Business District for the week ending March 6 was 45.4%.
For the week ending Feb. 27, occupancy was at 46.1%, which was down compared to 85.2% for that week in 2020.
Overall, there has been a consistent uptick in hotel occupancy throughout Austin.
During the deadly winter storm that struck Texas in February, hotels that still had power filled up quickly.
Below is a graph that shows hotel occupancy levels from January of 2020 to February of 2021.
"I think most people have already made their plans before the governor made his announcement, so they were coming here probably already," said Tom Noonan, the president and CEO of Visit Austin. "When you look at our restaurants and our hotels and our venues and others, overwhelmingly, they're saying, 'Yeah, we're going to be open, but we're going to have our staff wear masks. We hope you'll do the same. Let's be safe and let's have a good time.' And that's the right thing to do."
He added that while the occupancy levels are not back to normal, an uptick has been occurring.
"We know that we're getting more leads from meeting planners trying to bring their conventions. We know that individuals are starting to make more plans for travel for the future. So are we there yet on March 11? No. Or are we starting to see signs? Yes," he said. "Is there going to be more normal and may lead to even more double in June and July and August? Yeah, it's going to start going that way later in the spring, definitely summer and into fall. We're starting to see an uptick and let's do it responsibly, right? But we are starting to see some of the travel and we're starting to see an uptick in hotel occupancies."
While this is good news for businesses, it's different for doctors.
KVUE spoke to Dr. Natasha Kathuria, an emergency room doctor in Austin, who encourages the continuation of mask-wearing in Austin.
She advises those that have traveled to Austin for say, spring break, to continue to be mindful.
"A lot of companies and restaurants have really reinforced that we're going to continue to require masks and social distancing," she said. "So in those locations continue to enjoy yourselves and have a good time. But be mindful of where you're going and the environment that you're in. Just because you're here. Remember that we still have decreased restrictions, and so you have to be careful."
She added that she recommends anyone who has traveled to quarantine for at least 14 days.
"We're certainly worried about another surge," she said. "So we really need to be cautious and remember when our young population has not been vaccinated yet is out and about, the virus is going to continue to circulate. Those are super spreaders, and the more this virus circulates, even if people are not getting very sick from the virus because our elderly are still getting vaccinated, it's still giving that virus a chance to mutate, which we are very concerned about."
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