MANSFIELD — You have to take victories where you can find them during a pandemic.
Tourism was down in Richland County during 2020, but it was not as bad as it was elsewhere in Ohio and around the nation, according to Lee Tasseff, president of Destination Mansfield-Richland County.
Speaking to Mansfield City Council on Tuesday night, Tasseff said the negative impact of COVID-19 was felt throughout the tourism industry last year, including locally.
However, it was down just 15.3 percent in Richland County, compared to 24.5 percent in Ohio and 40 percent across the country.
“Obviously, people did still come out of their homes. They didn’t go to large urban areas. They came to places like Richland County,” Tasseff said. “Overall spending in multiple sectors showed a little more resiliency and a little more strength than even we had imagined.
“I am not painting a rosy picture at all. Things weren’t awesome last year. It was a great hardship. But one of the things that came out of it was that the local tourism economy was more resilient in 2020 than we even thought.
“All the plans that we made to survive 2020 worked,” he said. “And 2021 was a whole lot more fun than 2020.
“I am not going to give you details on everything we did, but as a spoiler alert, they were all up. It was a much better time this year” Tasseff said.
He pointed out that tourism — including arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodations and food service — was the fourth biggest employer in Richland County during 2020.
It accounted for $320.8 million in total sales while supporting 4,531 jobs, providing $9.03 million in local tax revenues and $95.2 million in local payroll.
One of the major tourism events during 2021 was the return of INKcarceration, a three-day music and tattoo festival that attracted 75,000 fans to the former Ohio State Reformatory in early September.
“It literally blew the doors off a lot of things,” Tasseff said with a laugh. “It worked exceedingly well.
“If not for the cooperation of officials within the county and within the city, events like that don’t happen.”
Tasseff also made mention of the nearly complete countywide branding effort, a project being done in partnership with the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.
Representatives from the branding firm, Belo + Company, a national company that specializes in community branding, were “on the ground” during research in Richland County this past summer and that the work was nearly complete.
“We made sure they got to see anything and everyone they need to. They did a ton of focus groups. They needed to listen to everybody and the things they found will be reflected in the brand story,” Tasseff said.
“Everything (going forward) will be built off the brand story. It has go to be authentic. It has to tell the story of who we are. When somebody sees that image out there and they come here, it has to match up.”
Tasseff admitted the pandemic has changed the way Destination Mansfield-Richland County operates.
“We are coming back. We are a little different than we used to be. Our staffing is not what it was, but we’re probably not going to put all that back. We need a little more flexibility in how we invest in bigger things going forward,” he said.
