Travel in Pittsburgh is bouncing back after over a year of pandemic-related closures and restrictions, according to VisitPittsburgh, the city's lead tourism organization.
Executive Vice President Jerad Bacher said they're seeing steady increases in key indicators like travelers going through TSA security checkpoints at Pittsburgh International Airport and hotel occupancy.
"Occupancies in Allegheny County did reach another pandemic-era high two weeks ago, where they reached 66.5 percent occupancy across the county with an average rate of $135, and that's also a pandemic-era high," he said. "We're really encouraged by what we're seeing in hotel performance. TSA checkpoints also continue to grow."
Tourism will likely see a natural dip to start September as kids return to school, but Bacher says Pittsburgh's teams help to fill that gap.
"One of the things you can always count on is hotel spikes, especially hotel spikes when it comes to a Steelers game, Penguins game and also quite a bit of people come in for Pirates games, as well."
Heinz Field is expected to be open to full capacity to start the NFL season. The Steelers play their first home game on Sept. 19.
The encouraging changes come as COVID-19 cases spike across the country.
Bacher said they're keeping a close eye on case numbers, adding they haven't seen widespread issues yet, but some people are reconsidering plans for travel and in-person events.
"We haven't seen widespread cancellations, but we have seen some delayed dates," he said. "There's been some smaller cancellations, for sure, but nothing that would be considered widespread at this point."
In-person events in Pittsburgh reached a pandemic milestone last week. The David L. Lawrence Convention Center hosted its first event since before the pandemic started.
Bacher said it's an encouraging sign, but business events will be the slowest tourism source to fully recover.
"A lot of companies still have restrictions on their travel and then individual corporate travel coming into Pittsburgh for individuals calling on clients or doing presentations, that's still also very much restricted," he said.
