Savannah Airport passenger numbers climbing

[ajc100890]

At this point, we don't have enough of a white-collar job market to spur economic growth without the tourism.

If any of the handful of manufacturing jobs left Savannah, without the tourism, it would devastate the economy.

[SavannahLife]

what is economic growth anyway? Seems like when cities grow cost of everything goes up. Probably another reason Ohioans moved to HHI aside from moving from sprawl. (which seem to be starting there now too)

Flights to Canada would be neat though but I bet they won't be cheap.

[masonbauknight]

Tourists are so tightly interwoven into the rest of the city's economy that fewer of them would mean some non-visitor businesses would not hire (or might go under). Savannah would take in less tax revenue (and that doesn't even include the dough it makes from the hotel-occupancy tax). Visitors who liked the city have settled in metro Savannah or (more often) retired in the area. More white-collar jobs are needed, but that's a sector that tourism doesn't hurt, and probably boosts by attracting more attention to the city.

I keep thinking of 1966, when Hunter Air Force Base closed and devastated Chatham County (which already had 100,000 fewer people than it does now). The effect was immediate, the blowback affecting schools, bakeries, bowling alleys, bars, the airport, everything. One key industry taking a hit -- the military (far more central to Savannah then than now) or the port, or tourism (which didn't exist in Savannah in 1966) -- can spoil the pot. Chatham LOST population between 1960 and 1970, virtually the only urban county in the South that did. Sorry, but I love the "tourons," as some have called them. I'm always glad to see them on the plane when I visit home. They are all enthusiastic about the city, let me tell you, and they are an asset.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by pink caddy

Question: Why do we need more tourists?? Not being snarky. Let's think about the benefits vs the negatives. Anybody?

Because they are our bread-and-butter. It's a clean industry that pays untold dividends in the long run. People come to visit. They have a good time. They go back home and talk about it. We're the No. 3 city in the country to visit, at present. Eventually, that has a ripple effect on other types of businesses, white collar investment, corporate and industrial growth, etc. It's all more for everybody. A city can't overcome its problems unless it prospers.

Originally Posted by SavannahLife

what is economic growth anyway? Seems like when cities grow cost of everything goes up. Probably another reason Ohioans moved to HHI aside from moving from sprawl. (which seem to be starting there now too)

SEE ABOVE. A city without economic growth is a city that is DYING ... that is hurtying ... that has marginalized citizens living in poverty YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR. The lack of economic prospersity is the exact thing that held Savannah back FOR DECADES .... and you'd like for it to just sit around and stay the same forever because you like the charm of a slower, smaller, quieter Savannah? Whatever ...

[pink caddy]

All well thought out answers to "why do we need more tourists?" Thanks.

[smarino]

Just curious, are some people here realtors or something? The fanboy level is off the charts on this forum in many of the posts. I'm curious because I used to live in Savannah, and it was an OK place, but nothing like some of the boosters here make it out to be. Like every other place, it had (and has) plenty of problems, especially w/ violent crime, racism, long standing poverty, and an incompetent, corrupt, good 'ol boy way of allegedly running the city.We won't even mention the police problems.

I'm not saying a lot of the posts are essentially putting lipstick on a pig because the city is unique in some ways, but wow, the past and existing problems are numerous and very serious. Which is why I left. There's just a huge amount of booster type posting. I'm making an effort to be as diplomatic as I can, but it gets beyond annoying hearing all this "praising the city's greatness" while at the same time willfully ignoring the other realities of living in Savannah. It does not sound realistic.

[masonbauknight]

Originally Posted by smarino

because the city is unique in some ways

That really made me smile -- perhaps an attempt to downplay and minimize Savannah's specialness as well as its gains over the past decade, especially compared to the other 2d-tier cities in the state. Everyone in the C-D Savannah forum speaks REGULARLY and OFTEN about Savannah's ills -- its violent crime, its poverty, its lack of white-collar jobs. And the subtropical bugs and the entrenched cronyism in "the State of Chatham." I've spoken about all of those many times, too. Others dedicate entire threads to it.

Truth is that Savannah was the state's backwater town just 30 years ago -- more like Albany, not growing, in a sad state of deterioration, and far less robust than the other 2d tiers. That has been totally reversed. Whereas before, the Atlanta papers and magazines like Georgia Trend referred to a metro area in decline, now metro Savannah is growing faster than Columbus, Augusta, and Macon. Savannah is featured in all the big national visitor guides (and is rapidly catching up to Charleston in total pages/photos). The airport and seaport have expanded, and are very modern. Among smaller southern metros, Savannah has a reputation and has even achieved a measure of fame. Today more books are written about it (like Jacqueline Jones' Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War). There was little of that 30 years ago. And since 2010, Savannah has been the fastest-growing metro in the state in rate of population growth, and second in new residents after Atlanta. It's a transformation that changes the city by the year, and yes, we are crowing about it. So are the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Georgia Trend, by the way.

[SavannahLife]

I love the tourists too. A tourist city has lots of art and events and it's why they keep the squares so clean. I am not necessarily looking forward to rapid growth of the city, population, or number of hotels. I am also not convinced it is universally 'good'. It is a mixed bag.. I agree with smarino:

Bigger cities have higher taxes and cost of living. Realtors and developers try to convince everyone the opposite. This particular fact itself is not necessarily a bad or good thing altogether. If you own property its value will climb which would be good for an owners, though rent and buying increase of course. I just want to highlight this economic relationship with growth. Now personally on the whole, I love how it is still a cosmopolitan city that still has a small city type of feel. Bland new chain hotels are sprouting up across downtown, while stripmall sprawl spreads across the burbs, somewhat eroding this feel. I love the idea of people living downtown in Savannah not just visiting. Now of course a certain amount of new construction (or historic reno!) should be hotels. I wish though when constructing them, they'd follow the style of Kessler at least. The new hotel on Forsyth looks bizarre and jarring as compared to the masterful Mansion on Forsyth or Kessler's proposed powerplant hotel. The brilliance of things like Mansion on Forsyth and the overall city architecture are why people come and visit.. not to see Hilton DeSoto (Imagine if they kept the old DeSoto or didn't build the Hyatt waterfront..)

As others say, I do hope we get more well-paying white-collar and blue-collar jobs. Design, creative, light industry, etc. Hotels are exactly the opposite. The Chamber of Commerce etc claim they will provide good jobs. They provide minimum wage jobs and probably some undocumented workers. Stripmall stores in Pooler aren't much better. Now, as for expansion of Gulf Stream or something like that? Yes I am all for it! But so far it looks like in the future, the downtown Savannah will be more humid Vegas strip, and Pooler will be a big stripmall. I may be in a small minority perhaps but I just don't have a strong desire for growth of city size or care whether we are in some newspaper up north.