Interview: John Siciliano, Executive

John Siciliano

Executive Director & CFO Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority

How did the Wildwoods economy evolve in the past year and what needs to be done to ensure growth?

For the first 12 months of the pandemic, we were just shut down as a convention center. Last summer, even though the Convention Center was closed, the town did relatively well from the standpoint of hotels and restaurants. By June, they finally started to open and most of the restaurants were doing takeout. This year, we’ve already been to three grand openings of new restaurants and business entities with over 30 more slated to open by summer. That is exciting and encouraging based on what we just came out of.

In terms of growth, we need to keep investing in our infrastructure. In 2015, we did a study that showed we delivered $1.5 billion worth of economic impact from tourism. By 2019, that number was closer to $1.9 billion. Cape May County alone brings in $6.3 billion. Investment in the tourism economy here, with the state’s help, goes back to the state in spades. That’s why it’s critical to inject resources into our boardwalk and the infrastructure that is needed for that.

What is your outlook for tourism and hospitality activity toward 2022?

Barring any unforeseen developments, we will continue to build to get back to where we were pre-pandemic. When you live in a town like this, the business people here are very resilient because they have to learn their business and learn to survive. We saw a lot of things change, such as restaurants moving from indoor to outdoor dining. We’ve seen some very creative things happening on our boardwalk and in our restaurants. Our boardwalk amusements and shops are probably not going to be 100% open because they don’t have the proper staffing but we firmly believe that we’re going to have a very good summer here. We are in talks for the development of a Marriott Hotel next door to the convention center, which would be a significant enhancement for us. That is in the due diligence period right now and by September 2021, we will know whether or not they are moving forward.

New Jersey welcomed over 80 million visitors in 2020.

struggling to recover. According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), hotels nationwide lost around $50 billion in room revenue and average occupancy rates for 2020 were around 44%. Despite low occupancy, hotels also have higher costs due to increased sanitation measures while having lost revenue from restaurant closures or capacity limitations. In 2021, the AHLA says hotels are expected to add 200,000 jobs but will remain well below 2019 levels until at least 2023. Nationwide hotel occupancy in 2021 is expected to average just 52.5%, with a more significant rebound expected in 2022 at 61.4%.

The drop in occupancy has a direct impact on state and local coffers. Direct state and local tax revenue generated from hotels fell by approximately $13 billion to $27.5 billion in 2020 across the nation. In New Jersey, bed tax revenues in 2020 were $77 million, down from