In Savannah, things haven’t been much better since July 4. Mayor Johnson said the city was still fighting to make something out of what he said has been an increasingly terrible summer. “It’s been hell, to be frank,” he said.
Known for its beauty and historical architecture, the Savannah area saw 14 million tourists come to town last year, accounting for $3 billion in revenue, said Joseph Marinelli, president of Visit Savannah. This summer, it’s projected to see half of that. “Everything came to a screeching halt,” he said.
Bill and Christie Miller of Marietta, Georgia, had planned a Caribbean cruise for May, but when the pandemic made that impossible, decided to take a shorter trip, to Savannah. As it grew dark one Saturday night in July at the town’s City Market, the Millers said they were surprised by crowds of mostly mask-less visitors eating and drinking while a “Mask Up Savannah” message board flashed across the square.
“We were told that everywhere it was mandatory,” Christie Miller, 52, said.
In Chatham County, which includes Savannah, some 6,665 people have been infected with the coronavirus and 115 have died.
Keely Davis, 24, traveled to Savannah to celebrate her birthday in March. After waiting out the lockdown, she decided to stay and take a job working as a “ghost tour” guide. During the weekends this summer, the city brims with people, Davis said, as if there was no pandemic.
But on weekdays, it feels far quieter than before Covid-19 struck.
“It’d be cool if people could wait until next year to come and visit Savannah,” Davis said. “But at the same time, I’m very grateful to have a job.”
Mask mandates like those enacted in Myrtle Beach and Savannah enable police to fine people who don’t wear masks in the restricted areas. But enforcing it also falls on business owners, and this can put them in direct confrontations with customers. In Savannah, implementing a mask mandate put the mayor directly in conflict with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who sued the city of Atlanta for such an order.
“Kemp does not give a damn about us,” Johnson tweeted in July in response to the lawsuit. He later said Savannah continued enforcing its mask requirement anyway.
But Savannah’s police department hadn’t been enforcing the local law as of early August. At the time, its employees had yet to issue a citation under the mask ordinance, the agency said, though it claimed to have handed out 1,250 masks. Myrtle Beach had issued three citations to businesses over employees not wearing masks, and none to individuals.
As summer comes to an end, new Covid-19 cases have been slowing in Savannah and Myrtle Beach. The full economic ramifications of the pandemic, however, may not be seen until next season.
“None of us really knows what’s going to happen this afternoon, let alone tomorrow or let alone next week,” Visit Savannah’s Marinelli said.
This story was provided by Bloomberg News.