By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — 2021 was a better year for tourism than 2020, but there's still work to do.
"2020 was a rough year across the board for everybody," said LeeAnn Cox with Visit Hutch. "2021, we did rebound a little bit. We certainly hoped that we would. Some of our partners here in the Hutchinson and Reno County area did a tremendous job in continuing to find ways to host events. We saw that. The hotels felt that impact, which they desperately needed. Coming off of the year prior with COVID, the hotel industry was probably the worst hit of all. I think we should all count ourselves lucky that we didn't lose any hotels."
There is still a lack of hotel rooms in Hutchinson.
"It hampers our ability to go to national shows, garner leads on events that we want to bid on," Cox said. "We can't come back and put a package together that's attractive to those rights holders. We just don't have the quantity of hotel rooms that are needed."
It's important to note that any hotel project the Atrium's size would likely stretch over more than a year, even without the additional hoops required by having a government entity in ownership. Nevertheless, it's even farther out than that construction timeline for events that are currently being booked.
"We are typically three years out when you go through the bid process," Cox said. "Those rights holders want to have host locations identified multiple years out. If we're going to a show in 2022 say, in the spring, we'll be bidding on events for 2024, 2025, you know, something like that."
The issue is that until they have at least mockups and drawings of what a new Atrium would look like and an idea of a construction timeline, it's hard to bid on those events. However, once they have those pieces, their intent is to bid on events even before the hotel is built.