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October 5 , 2021

Serving Lincoln City Since 1927

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Tourism: Looking beyond the pandemic JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net

As a popular Oregon Coast destination, Lincoln City relies on its tourism industry to help promote the local economy and sustain the livability of the community. The News Guard continues to monitor the driving factors of tourism and its impact, up or down, in our city. To gain insight into the 2021 spring and summer tourist season, we check in from time to time with Explore Lincoln City Director Ed Dreistadt. The following conversation is our latest update. The News Guard: Briefly describe the 2021 spring and summer tourist season in Lincoln City? Robust or Bust? Up or Down, and what percentages can you share with us? Ed Driestadt: As you know, our most solid numbers are the revenue figures reported by our lodging properties which the city uses to calculate the Transient Room Tax. The story they tell are amazing. While it’s fun to see things like the 4,559% increase in April this year versus 2020, that is comparing this year to last year when the short-term lodging ban was in effect. A more accurate way of looking at 2021 is to compare it to 2019, our last pre-COVID year. Here’s how those numbers look: • January +61% • February +73% • March +35% • April +71% • May +35% • June +50%

See TOURISM, Page A9

COURTESY FROM EXPLORE LINCOLN CITY

Lincoln City uses its Haunted Taft promotion each Halloween season to attract visitors.

‘Individual responsibility’ needed to end pandemic JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net

HILARY DORSEY Sanctuary 97135 Tanning & Wellness is a new wellness studio that offers tanning and touch-free massage services in Pacific City. The shop has been open for a month.

New wellness studio in Pacific City offers relaxation, tanning HILARY DORSEY Staff Writer

Sanctuary 97135 Tanning & Wellness is a new wellness studio that offers tanning and touch-free massage services in Pacific City. The shop has been open for a month. Owner Seaora Cuevas lives in Pacific City and runs another shop, Ritual 97135 Coastal Soapery & Candelarium. She had been feeling under the weather and was driving to Newport to go tanning. She started noticing she was feeling better mentally and

reached out to people who own several wellness studios in the Portland area. “I wanted to bring to Pacific City another way of fighting the winter blues that get really intense around here and elevating everybody’s serotonin levels, getting the vitamin D production through the beds,” Cuevas said. Sanctuary 97135 offers midintensity UVB beds. The bed provides a base tan to build with, while offering a safer option than high-intensity beds. Spray tans are not available at this time but once available, will offer a variety

of shades. Prices for tanning include $15 for walk in 10 minutes, $25 for walk in 20 minutes and $65 for monthly package. There are also packages that include multiple tan passes. The studio also has touchless massage chairs, offering a zero gravity chair up to an hour. Prices are $35 for walk in 20 minutes, $52 for walk in 30 minutes and $100 for walk in hour. There are also monthly packages. “When someone is looking for a consistent massage, it’s not meant to replace the human

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touch, but it’s meant to complement that massage therapy,” Cuevas said of the chairs. Cuevas said Pacific City is in the heart of tourism, but also no man’s land. There are not a lot of things for women to do. She wanted to provide an additional, feminine space. “It’s really important to me that people have access to other things that are going to help elevate their mood and stimulate their immunity and their health as well,” Cuevas said.

Gov. Brown and state health and education officials say they are encouraged by the declining COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, but they also acknowledge that individual responsibility is necessary to ‘put the pandemic behind us.’ “I want to start with some promising news,” Brown announced at an electronic Zoom media briefing from her office in Salem Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 28. “Our hospitalizations are declining with 822 as of today. Cases are slowly declining as well.” Brown said she and state officials had hoped that by the end of June communities across the state would have been free of COVID-19. “Unfortunately, Delta changed everything,” she said. “The good news is that while we still have a long way to go it appears things are slowly getting better and everyday there is renewed hope as we see more people get vaccinated, progress on vaccines for our 5 to 11 year olds, and now, the beginning of boosters for some of our most vulnerable.” Brown also confirmed that booster shots will now be available for some of Oregon’s most vulnerable. “Thank you to everyone who is getting vaccinated and wearing your mask,” she said. “Your efforts are truly saving lives. Vaccines continue to be key to putting this pandemic behind us.” Brown said those Oregonians

See TANNING, Page A3

See PANDEMIC, Page A3

thenewsguard.com

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