Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism

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Tourism Industry Resources

Although our Visitor Information Centers are temporarily closed, the staff of Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism are working hard to assist our business members by providing a variety of updated information on our website as well circulating information about our destination to inspire travel after the threat of the global pandemic has passed. Please do not hesitate to reach out to sandy@bellingham.org with any questions you may have.

Travel Advisory Updates

To assist our visitors, local partners and employees, Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism is maintaining a Travel Advisory landing page with information and resources on the spread of COVID-19 as it relates to the travel industry in Whatcom County and Washington State. This page is continuously updated. Please feel welcome to share the link with your audience and staff.

Bellingham Now – Taking on COVID-19
Impacts on Tourism in Whatcom County

Whatcom Unified Command

In an effort to further support the public health response to the COVID-19 crisis, all Whatcom County governments have consolidated efforts under a Whatcom Unified Command.

Economic Impact Task Force

Under Whatcom Unified Command’s direction, the Economic Impact Task Force, led by Don Goldberg, have compiled tools and resources for local businesses to utilize so that our team and partners can begin to assess the extent of the economic impacts stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak. 

  1. Survey of Economic Impacts: The Regional Economic Partnership (REP) at the Port of Bellingham has released a report detailing the results of a general survey on the economic impacts of COVID-19 on Whatcom County businesses. The survey was developed by the REP in coordination with Whatcom Unified Command, the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and Western Washington University’s Small Business Development Center.
  2. Business Assistance from WWU’s Small Business Development Center: https://sbdc.wwu.edu/business-continuity-resources 
  3. Business Re-entry: register for business re-entry with Washington State: https://mil.wa.gov/business-re-entry-registration
  4. Manufacturing Personal Protective Equipment: Companies that may have the capability to make donations or repurpose your facility or manufacturing equipment to produce Personal Protective Equipment and infection-control products, please contact the Department of Enterprise Services to discuss options: https://des.wa.gov/about/agency-overview/covid-19-information-%E2%80%93-des-guidance/personal-protective-equipment 

News Releases

Washington State Resources

Covid Wastatephase1

Governor Inslee issues guidance for partially resuming in-store retail & additional manufacturing operations in Phase 2

Gov. Jay Inslee issued guidance today for partially resuming limited in-store retail and manufacturing operations for counties granted variance under the Safe Start Phase 2 recovery plan laid out last week.

Through the Washington “Safe Start” plan, more businesses and activities will re-open in subsequent phases with adequate safety and health standards in place. Each phase will be at least three weeks – metrics and data will guide when the state can move from one phase to another. 

Through the Safe Start approach, counties with a population of less than 75,000 that have not had a new case of COVID-19 in the past three weeks can apply for a variance to move to Phase 2 of “Safe Start” before other parts of the state. County variance applications will be approved or denied by the secretary of the Department of Health. Eight counties have received the variance. 

For counties granted variance to move to Phase 2, in-store retail operations may resume with limitations, effective May 12. This builds on guidance that Inslee issued yesterday, and requires that any sit-down in-store food and beverage services must follow all Phase 2 restaurant requirements.

Guidance documents: 

Inslee also released guidance regarding additional manufacturing operations which may resume, effective May 12. 

Guidance documents: 

Full list of guidance for all current businesses.

Governor Inslee’s guidance for partially resuming the dine-in restaurant and tavern industry in Phase 2

Partially Resuming the Dine-In Restaurant and Tavern Industry – Proclamation 20-25: This memorandum serves as the criteria for partially resuming the dine-in restaurant and tavern industry under Phase 2 and is effective as of May 11, 2020. After consulting with stakeholders, we have developed the comprehensive Phase 2 – Dine-In Restaurant and Tavern Industry COVID-19 Requirements. These requirements apply as long as Gubernatorial Proclamation 20-25, or any extension thereof, is in effect or if adopted as rules by a federal, state or local regulatory agency. Click here to read full memorandum. 
Phase 2 Restaurant/Tavern Reopening COVID-19 Requirements: The restaurant/tavern must adopt a written procedure for dine-in service that is at least as strict as the Phase 2 procedure below and complies with all safety and health requirements. Click here to read full guideline procedures. 

Washington Tourism Alliance New Website Encourages Gift Card Purchases

Financial Resources

  • The Washington State Dept of Financial Institutions has developed a helpful webpage list of Financial Resources for Washington Residents Impacted by COVID-19. This includes banks and credit unions, unemployment assistance, trouble paying credit cards, morgage assistance, trouble paying rent, paying student loans, short-term and emergency loans, utilities assistance, and more.

Grants

  • Dept. of. Commerce Grant Helps Hotels Provide Rooms for COVID-19 Responders and Vulnerable Populations.
  • Governor’s Strategic Reserve Fund: Up to $5 million will be made available to provide Working Washington Small Business Emergency Grants of up to $10,000 to small businesses with 10 or less employees, to help prevent closure due to COVID-19. Application and Eligibility details here.

Loans

  • Business Impact NW provides low-interest loans to community-based nonprofits and small businesses with more flexible criteria than traditional financial institutions. Additionally, it has compiled an outstanding set of COVID-19 resources.
  • Craft3 provides low-interest loans to community-based nonprofits and small businesses, with more flexible criteria than traditional financial institutions.
  • The Governor has responded swiftly with  expanded benefits programs and a resource list. These include programs such as SharedWork, which provides partial wage replacement to avoid layoffs, and standby, which suspends the job-search requirement for workers to collect unemployment benefits if an employer must make temporary layoffs. You can see a chart of available benefits for various COVID-19 scenarios here.

Worker’s Comp Grace Period

  • The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) is providing emergency relief through the Employer Assistance Program to help employers struggling to pay their workers’ compensation premiums during the coronavirus outbreak. L&I is now offering a grace period for premium payments, along with payment plans for employers facing financial difficulties during the pandemic.

Legal Assistance

  • Governor Inslee has encouraged individuals and businesses to take advantage of legal assistance through the state’s Office of Civil Legal Aid. State legal aid programs can help with unemployment compensation, eviction and foreclosure, family safety and domestic violence, debt collection, consumer protection and other issues. Details at ocla.wa.gov.

Relief for Taxpayers

Mental Health

U.S. Travel Association

The White House has named travel and hospitality as an industry group that will work on forging a path to economic recovery. On April 15, Roger Dow joined other travel industry executives on a conference call with President Trump to discuss the rebuilding of America.

The Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups are comprised of major U.S. industries including hospitality, heath care, financial services, food and beverage, retail, tech, manufacturing, and others. Appointees have been made to the Hospitality task force to lead the travel industry toward recovery.

Federal Covid-19 Cares Act Resources

The CARES Act, the largest economic relief package in our nation’s history, was signed into law on March 27, 2020 and includes major provisions U.S. Travel fought for to deliver economic support to travel businesses, travel workers and their families. Here is a link for eligibility details: https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/covid-19-cares-act-relief-resources

  • Provides loans of 2.5 times payroll up to $10 million, grants and tax breaks to businesses large and small
  • Provides for loan forgiveness for expenditures made for payroll, rent and other costs
  • Payments of up to $1,200 to millions of Americans
  • Bolsters unemployment benefits
  • Provides financial support to states, local governments and the health care system

Federal Loans

Travel in the New Normal Guidance for Promoting the Health and Safety of All Travelers

The U.S. Travel Association has submitted to the White House and to the governors of every state a document of health and safety guidance recommendations developed with collaboration with health and medical professionals, and with organizations throughout the broader travel industry: hotels/resorts, airports, airlines, attractions, restaurants, rental cars, meeting venues, event producers, travel advisors and others. 
The guidance focuses on six key areas, with suggested approaches outlined under each. Read the full guidance here. 

  • Travel businesses should adapt operations, modify employee practices and/or redesign public spaces to help protect employees and customers.
  • Travel businesses should consider implementing touchless solutions, where practical, to limit the opportunity for virus transmission while also enabling a positive travel experience.
  • Travel businesses should adopt and implement enhanced sanitation procedures specifically designed to combat the transmission of COVID-19.
  • Travel businesses should promote health screening measures for employees and isolate workers with possible COVID-19 symptoms and provide health resources to customers.
  • Travel businesses should establish a set of procedures aligned with CDC guidance should an employee test positive for COVID-19.
  • Travel businesses should follow best practices in food and beverage service to protect the health of employees and customers.

Restaurants: Click here to read a summary of the relief package from the National Restaurant Association. https://hub.wahospitality.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Phase-Three-CARES-Act-Summary-3.23.20.docx2_.pdf

Lodging: Click here to read a summary of the relief package from the American Hotel & Lodging Association. https://hub.wahospitality.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/HR-748-Summary-update-3.26.20.pdf

Traveler Sentiment

Several nationwide studies have been implemented to track traveler sentiment as it relates to the COVID-19 health crisis and their future travel plans. Here are the most recent results:

U.S. Travel Guidelines for Re-opening

Travel Sentiment Study Wave 10
Fielded May 13, 2020
U.S. National Sample of 1,000 adults 18+

Destination Analysts

Update on Coronavirus’ Impact on American Travel – Week of May 11

  • 68.4% of Americans miss vacations.
  • 59.9% of Americans miss dining in restaurants.

Update on Coronavirus’ Impact on American Travel – Week of May 4

  • The practices that will make travelers feel most confident on an airline is looking out for their health are high-tech cleaning of planes’ interiors between flights and requiring passenger health screenings.
  • What will make travelers most confident that a hotel is looking out for their health and safety are guests being provided with hand sanitizer, face masks, disinfectant wipes, etc., and having the property’s cleaning/sanitizing procedures well-explained.
  • Overall, 35.3% of American travelers say they are comfortable with their home state re-opening its economy right now, although this is uneven across regions.
  • The percent of American travelers agreeing they don’t want travelers in their community right now is still notable but down from prior weeks.
  • Travelers continue to be split on whether they would be happy seeing an ad right now promoting their community as a place to visit when its safe.

Update on Coronavirus’ Impact on American Travel – Week of April 27

  • Now Is Still Not the Time for Travel: Americans continue to largely associate fear and uncertainty with travel right now. This week 63.5% agree they don’t want visitors coming to their community right now, although the strength of their agreement with this sentiment has lessened.
  • 64.1% of Americans would like to see hand sanitizer provided at businesses and events as common practice. 57.3% would like to see disinfectant wipes provided.

Update on Coronavirus’ Impact on American Travel – Week of April 20

  • 67.6% of American Travelers do not want visitors traveling to their community right now.
  • 50.8% of American Travelers say they will choose regional rather than long haul destinations this year.

Update on Coronavirus’ Impact on American Travel – Week of April 13

  • 29.5% of Americans feel the coronavirus situation will get better in the next month.
  • 70% of Americans miss travel, but nine in ten will approach travel carefully, with at least some trepidation.
  • 55.2% of Americans say they will take a staycation this summer.
  • 55.7% of Americans say they will avoid crowded destinations.
  • When asked the place they will visit on their first post-pandemic trip, beach/resort destinations top the list (38.2%), followed by small towns/rural areas (30.0%) then cities (26.6%).

Update on Coronavirus’ Impact on American Travel–Week of April 6

  • 72.8% of American travelers have had trips affected by Covid-19
  • 31% of American travelers feel confident the coronavirus situation will be resolved by summer 2020
  • 53.1% of American travelers expect to be traveling in the fall
  • 45.8% of American Travelers will avoid crowded designations
  • Trips Affected
  • Trips Canceled
  • Americans Who Expect To Be Traveling 4 6 Destination Analysts
  • First Trip Post Pandemic

Longwoods International / Miles Media

U.S. Travel Sentiment Survey, April 7, 2020

  • 84% of American travelers have changed their travel plans for the next 6 months
  • 65% of American travelers are still planning trips in the next 6 months, compared to 87% one week ago.

Adara

US Domestic Travel Trends – Hotel and Air

  • Shows real time data on volume of US domestic trips, and booking windows for flights and hotels.

Morning Consult

Tracking Public Opinions on Coronavirus

  • 63% of Americans are less likely to travel in the U.S. due to fears of coronavirus (as of April 5)
  • 74% of U.S. adults are less likely to go on vacation due to fears of coronavirus (as of April 5)
  • 78% of U.S. adults are less likely to go to a theatre due to fears of coronavirus (as of April 5)

Local Status Updates

News Releases

Statements

Allegiant Airlines Suspends Operations at Bellingham International Airport

Due to the closure of the U.S.-Canada border to nonessential travel, Allegiant has temporarily suspended all operations at the Bellingham International Airport, effective March 24. Passengers who booked directly through Allegiant.com will be notified of any flight cancellations.

The governments of the United States and Canada made the decision to halt travel for tourism and recreation in an effort to slow the spread of Coronavirus Disease / COVID-19. This border closure virtually overnight had a direct and profound impact on our Bellingham flights, as the majority of our customers in Bellingham are leisure travelers from Canada.

Bellingham International Airport has been an Allegiant base since 2008, employing approximately 100 people. During this temporary suspension in service, we are formalizing potential options for our impacted employees.

We are tentatively targeting June 3 to return to flying, though any number of uncontrollable factors could impact the feasibility of that date – first and foremost, the timeline for reopening the Canadian border. Our teams are in constant contact with both United States and Canadian officials, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other regulatory agencies, monitoring the latest developments.

Western Washington University

2020 Spring Quarter Entirely Online

Western Washington University has announced that all classes and instruction will be offered remotely throughout spring quarter. As announced previously, spring quarter classes are starting on Monday, April 6, and the quarter is expected to end as scheduled after final exams conclude on June 12, 2020.

WWU Coronavirus Web Page

This website provides information and serves as Western’s central hub of coronavirus resources and Frequently Asked Questions.www.wwu.edu/coronavirus. 

Western Today

Western Today is a daily e-newsletter that provides up-to-date news and information. You can sign up for daily alerts here.

Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism Newsletters

Tourism Talk / Industry Updates

The Traveler / Updates for Visitors