Conference considers state workforce, infrastructure solutions

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This story first appeared in the Feb. 21 print edition of GSA Business report.

Gov. Henry McMaster regaled the crowd at Greenville’s Hyatt Regency ballroom: several hundred hailing from Abbeville to York for an event most called “GovCon 2022.”

“We were up in Washington to have the national governor’s association, and the Republican Governors Association were meeting up there,” he told the audience. “We went to the White House, and we were in a room about this big, having a round table discussion.”

President Joe Biden had called on each of the 32 governors who circled the conference room for the meeting until, according to McMaster, the president exclaimed, “’Now, we’ll hear from the governor of the great state of South Carolina, Henry Master – tell me about Myrtle Beach!”

Cheers erupted across the Hyatt ballroom, peaking to a roar from a table one could assume to be the Myrtle Beach delegation.

“By that time outside, I think it was something like 20 degrees and the weatherman said it felt like 10,” McMaster continued. “So of course, I said, ‘I wish I were there right now.’ And about half the room said, ‘Me too!’”

The story didn’t fall on deaf ears. Many of the visitors at the S.C. Annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel from Feb. 7-9 were from out-of-state and were taking notes, according to Bill Miles, president and CEO of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.

Miles since has witnessed the same trend on the island with remote workers. Even as tourism languished across the country, they came in droves to the island, and he believes they may be here to stay.

“We see the demand for the next six months outpacing where the demand was in 2019,” he told GSA Business Report. “Real estate sales have been really, really strong.”

Home to the RBC Heritage Golf Tournament and numerous other courses, Hilton Head especially benefitted from the Palmetto State’s 27% increase in golf rounds and spike in outdoor recreation since 2019.

“It’s been really encouraging to see the rebound of tourism and to be able to have these tourism professionals come together and be able to see the results of the hard work that’s taken place during the pandemic to be able to generate the numbers that have come in,” Miles said.

The bottom’s fallen out

During Duane Parrish’s “state of tourism” keynote on Feb. 7, the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism director reiterated that South Carolina’s ability to cater to new trends in tourism helped the industry recover faster than in neighboring states.

“In addition to golfing and fishing, South Carolina destinations scored a significant win in the overall recruitment of sports events,” Parrish said.

Last financial year set records for the department’s Start Grant program, which seeded 17 recruited events.

“Our destinations have been able to pick up several sports events from other states where COVID restrictions were more severe,” he told the crowd. “We made sure the message is loud and clear: South Carolina is open. Along with sports, last year also saw the return of many of our state’s major festivals and cultural events.

New challenges lie ahead, he said, to keep up the pace. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s tourism sector struggled with workforce retainment and development.

“For a long time, it’s been a slow leak, a problem we’ve worked through, around and powered on,” he said during the keynote. “But with this pandemic and the great resignation that we face today, the bottom has fallen out.”

The department contracted the firm Destination Analysts to conduct a study on the perceptions of South Carolinians on working in the hospitality industry to better understand why so many left the industry behind. Erin Francis-Cummings, president and CEO of the firm, shared study results at the conference Feb. 9.

Parrish also previewed plans to launch a workforce development and training initiative with the S.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association in the coming months.

Paving the way for visitors

“Bob Dylan sang a song that said, ‘if you can’t bring good news, don’t bring any,” McMaster said during his closing speech. “And it so happens, all I got is good news.”

He reiterated that South Carolina’s “lightest touch” approach toward pandemic restrictions aid the tourism and hospitality industry, while bolstering the economy to a 2.9% unemployment rate since December.

“We got a lot of jobs out there looking for people. That’s better than people looking for jobs,” said the governor, adding that last year he put $29 million into a technical college scholarship program for students pursuing high-demand careers.

As the S.C. State House decides how to balance a $3 billion surplus in the state budget this year, McMaster hopes they will consider allocating $124 million to the scholarship program again, as well as $26 billion toward road improvements, $300 million for the S.C. Ports Authority deepening project, $500 million toward water and sewer projects and $300 million into the Office of Resilience for protecting beaches and other natural resources.

“Why am I telling you all this?” he asked the crowd. “What’s this got to do with you? Everything. If we can’t get the people in and out safely and quickly and accommodate them well and treat them well, they won’t come here. My approach is the three parts to our success is education, the environment, and the economy, but they’re all part of the same thing. We don’t balance one against the other.”

And the Oscar goes to…

McMaster and Parrish presented awards at the end of the conference to three tourism professionals from across the state.

Phil Gaines, an adjunct professor at Clemson University and the previous director of S.C. State Parks, received the Fred Brinkman Award for his “enduring and outstanding commitment to improving tourism in the state,” according to the department. Gaines worked in the parks system, joining Kings Mountain State Park’s staff in 1982 and retiring in 2018.

Greenville’s Euphoria Food, Wine and Music Festival was awarded with the Governor’s Cup for the festival’s $3.8 million economic impact on tourism and donations to 40 local music, performing arts and food access charities.

The Abbeville Opera House, a 300-seat venue on the National Historic Register, was presented with the Charles A. Bundy Award for a 240% increase in economic impact within the rural region since 2017. As attendance of local shows waned over three years ago, the city of Abbeville attracted acts from farther afield, modernized equipment and invested in historic preservation, yielding a resurgence in visitors.