How is the rising tide of visitors impacting needs downtown?

If you’re a regular follower of downtown Spartanburg news (and you should because there's no shortage of great news) you probably read the article in this past Sunday’s Herald-Journal about the possibility of a second downtown hotel. While we can’t talk about the specifics of any potential development, the article led with a very interesting question: “Is downtown Spartanburg ready for a second hotel?” Around here, we're pretty bullish on downtown Spartanburg so you can probably guess what our answer would be. But that's not just the knee-jerk reaction of a few optimistic bureaucrats around City Hall. When it comes to hotel demand in Spartanburg, the numbers don’t lie. Countywide, hotel occupancy is up 5 percent, and the average daily rate for a hotel room is up 7 percent. Overall revenue per room is up 12 percent. While those numbers are great, they also pose further questions. What’s driving the increased demand for hotel rooms in Spartanburg? How would a new downtown hotel take advantage of that demand? Today on the podcast, we’ve brought on a guest who’s probably better qualified than anyone around to answer to those questions, Spartanburg Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Chris Jennings.How is the rising tide of visitors impacting needs downtown?