By all available measures, Savannah’s tourism boom continues.
New hotels are being built. The city’s hotel-motel tax receipts are up, and so are hotel occupancy rates.
As detailed in a study released last week by Visit Savannah, the city’s 2013 visitors were younger and spent more money than in previous years.
As noted by Armstrong State University economist Michael Toma in the most recent Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, the Savannah metro area now has more jobs in leisure and hospitality than in any other sector.
According to the April estimates from the Georgia Department of Labor, the Savannah metro area has 24,600 payroll jobs in leisure and hospitality, 23,900 in education and health services, 21,200 in professional and business services and 19,100 in retail trade. That last sector is also significantly supported by tourism.
I hope Visit Savannah and other tourism promoters have continued success, especially as they appeal to a broader mix of visitors and tell different stories about things to do here.
But the success in luring tourists shines an unflattering light on other sectors of the economy.
You’ll note that I didn’t list manufacturing among the leading sectors. According to estimates, the Savannah metro area had 15,200 manufacturing jobs in April. By comparison, we had 15,000 in April 2007.
Yes, we saw a deep recession in those intervening years, but we’ve also seen the arrival of Mitsubishi Power Systems and the expansion of Gulfstream. The megasite still sits mostly vacant.
As has been noted many times over the years in this column, it’s fair to question whether we want the local economy to be so reliant on tourism. If not, then we need some new strategies — or we need to do a better job of implementing existing strategies.
A brief correction
In a recent column, I wrote that cottages on West 33rd and 34th streets dated to 1920.
As it turns out, some of the cottages on Meldrim Row, named for the 19th century mayor who developed the project as homes for black workers, were constructed in the early 1880s.
In other words, some of those historic buildings were almost certainly home to folks who had been emancipated from slavery.
The cottages were renovated about 20 years ago and are an example of affordable rental housing in a city with less and less of it.
If these homes are razed, city officials won’t have much credibility in the future when they insist that nearby property owners preserve historic structures and that developers construct affordable housing.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.