TRAVL, INTRRUPTED

FEW AREAS of the economy were hit as hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as the tourism industry. In Texas, consumer travel spending dropped by nearly a third from 2019 to 2020, resulting in an estimated $53.5 billion loss in economic activity, according to the Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism. But Texans aren’t the kind of people to stay put forever, and the past year has seen a major comeback for leisure travel. Hotels, restaurants, and tourist sites have spent millions to retrofit and reimagine their operations with safety and cleanliness in mind, winning guests back in droves. Air travel and hotel occupancy rates are almost back to pre-pandemic levels; of the half-million hospitality workers who lost their jobs in spring 2020, around 400,000 have been hired back to meet the growing demand.

Some travel sectors are hotter than ever. More Texans are taking road trips now than in 2019, and beach towns reported record numbers of visitors last summer. With the delta variant causing a rise in COVID cases in Texas in late summer, tourists are particularly attracted to outdoor destinations they can reach by car. We decided to follow their lead by taking our own road trip