BRYAN, Texas — People have heard left and right all summer long of events being canceled, postponed or just being condensed.
It's no secret that Texas A&M's sports and activities are a huge draw to the area, but with the pandemic causing lots of changes to Aggie sports, hotels and the local economy are also being affected.
“We’re just trying to adjust every day," said Dominique Powell, the director of sports for the economic development and tourism office for the City of College Station.
Cities across the state of Texas are also feeling the effects, but in a college town like Bryan-College Station, these effects are even more dramatic.
“There is no question this market is taking it the worst of all," said Hunter Goodwin, the COO and president of Oldham Goodwin Group.
According to Goodwin, this past June there were 38,000 fewer people per month visiting Bryan-College Station hotels compared to June 2019.
Goodwin owns a variety of hotels in different markets across Texas. He said cities like Austin have big attractions like several lakes and rivers and a booming technology sector. These factors bring a lot of diversity to the area.
“If you look at the University of Texas – Austin, they make up a small percentage of gross domestic product (GDP ) and demand," Goodwin said. "Where here, Texas A&M is pretty much the only game in town.”
This fall season, Texas A&M will have a shorter football schedule. With fewer Texas A&M home games, it will impact the B/CS economy; but Goodwin said that is just a part of it.
“Its A&M as a whole," Goodwin said. "While they’ve said the right things and they intend to offer classes in person, it really becomes about the return of students back to the marketplace.”
Goodwin said there has been a recent increase in hotel bookings and the local economy in the past few days with students moving back into dorms and apartments. This shows just how much A&M correlated activities mean to the local economy.
“The singular message is we’re dependent on A&M. As they go, we go," Goodwin said. "Let me be clear when I say we, it's all of us. It’s every single person that lives in this community.”
Goodwin believes its time for Bryan and College Station to expand on how they market the cities.
The City of College Station is prepared to shift the focus off of A&M onto other activities in the community.
"We have a lot of assets here in College Station and we want to make sure people know that," Powell said. "They may have some free time here in the fall to spend some money that they potentially hadn’t had before, and [they can] come visit some places they haven’t seen.”