Hilton Head tourism season off to strong start. Here’s how traffic compares to last summer
It’s that time of the year again on Hilton Head Island. The start of tourism season is here.
Last Friday was the busiest traffic day at the entrance to the island since late July 2021, according to data from the S.C. Department of Transportation.
Accounting for both eastbound and westbound traffic, more than 67,190 vehicles passed over Jenkins Island on U.S. 278, which is the highest number since July 31, according to SCDOT.
With sunny skies and temperatures ranging from the low 70s to the low 80s, along with the start of this year’s popular Wine and Food Festival, visitors and locals got a chance to enjoy the Lowcountry spring.
Andrew Carmines, owner of Hudson’s Seafood House on the Docks, said “it’s definitely crazy busy.”
The past two weeks of March, Carmines said, have been bustling with people looking for outdoor dining. “It’s not going to let up,” he predicted.
Easter Sunday is fast approaching. The RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing golf tournament is scheduled for April 11-17 — and will be at full capacity this year. It’s also spring break season.
The ongoing Wine and Food Festival, meanwhile, is already drawing people to Hilton Head.
The festival began Sunday and will wrap up Saturday. Jeff Gerber, the festival’s director, in a statement Thursday wrote that ticket sales are up significantly year-over-year, and he thinks that general admissions tickets for Saturday’s public wine tasting event may sell out, which has never happened before.
In previous years, Gerber wrote, 66% of attendees traveled 50 miles or more to attend the festival.
The average stay for attendees on the island, he added, has previously been 4.5 days.
Hallie Martin, a spokesperson for the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, noted that for the week of March 13, the island’s hotel occupancy was at 70% compared to 66% for the same time period last year.
For the week of March 6, hotel occupancy was at 62.5% statewide in South Carolina, which is higher than it was in 2021, but lower than it was in 2019 pre-pandemic, according to the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
COVID-19 trends
It’s not surprising that events like the Wine and Food Festival are seeing an increase in ticket sales. As coronavirus cases remain low in the United States, pent-up travel demand is to be expected after years of COVID-19.
And Carmines, of Hudson’s, noted that he thinks domestic travel may be preferred right now over trips abroad, given the strict pandemic rules for some international travel and the new surge of COVID-19 cases in western Europe.
Between March 13-19, Beaufort County recorded 31 confirmed coronavirus cases and nine probable infections, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. There also was one probable COVID-19 death during that time.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 1:27 PM.
