CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With summer around the corner, people will soon be sharing their summer plans, that is if they have any. Are people still planning to get away this summer break? And if they are, is affordability top of mind?
CEO of Visit Corpus Christi Brook Kaufman and her staff just got back from National Tourism Week. Here’s what they learned.
“National statistics show that tourism is still on the rise. So the intent to travel is still very strong,” Kaufman said.
That holds true for neighbors right here in Corpus Christi.
“We would go on vacation a lot even as a kid,” Briggs said.
Two separate women KRIS 6 spoke with said Corpus Christi actually used to be their vacation spot. Now, they both call it home and have called it home since October.
“My husband and I would always come to Corpus to vacation while we were dating,” Briggs said.
“Every year it’s planned that they will come back. I have five boys and a girl and everybody wants to come. It’s just a matter of scheduling it with their work at home,” Janie Ayers from Ohio said.
Kaufman said hotel occupancy rates have been a little low in the past years but it’s still an overall increase since 2019. They expect that steady increase to continue this summer.
“Post COVID we have just seen epic amounts of recovery. You can see that 22, 23, 24 everything looks very stable. We’re going to see that again in 2025,” Kaufman said.
Some neighbors KRIS 6 spoke with said the economy wont stop their families from taking a vacation this summer. In fact, it seems to be on their side.
“The flights have been really cheap lately coming to Corpus from Ohio. We’ve already looked into that,” Ayers said.
Others have to change their plans a bit due to unexpected expenses.
“There are things we wanted to do this summer but now we can’t. We’re set back but we’re just going to make the best of it here in Corpus,” Briggs said.
But because Corpus Christi is more affordable than other cities, those change of plans just means the family might have to head this way instead.
“I have a lot of friends that tell me I need to fix the room up so they can stay the weekend because they want to go fishing and crabbing and deep sea fishing with us,” Briggs said.
Most visitors that come to Corpus Christi are in-state. Visit CC said the influx of visitors usually starts around Memorial Day weekend and lasts until September.
“Gas prices are going to be down so that will be great for the road-trippers. We anticipate that will also impact the families who say maybe we want to spend less, maybe we’re a little bit nervous. But we’re affordable and a great value,” Kaufman said.
Visit CC said their economic impact numbers show that 28,000 people here in Corpus Christi have jobs related in some way to our tourist economy.
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